Terms of use

Abstract

These terms set out the conditions under which Empirical Finance may be used. They apply to the articles, calculators and request form, and they take effect on first use. Anyone unwilling to accept them should not use the site.

Highlights

Materials are general education.
Calculator outputs depend on stated assumptions.
Advisors are independent parties.

1 Materials, method and liability

1.1 Scope of the materials

The articles and calculators are general financial education. They do not constitute personalized advice on investments, tax, law or insurance, and they are not a substitute for it. Nothing in them is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a specific product.

1.2 Permitted reuse

The materials carry the protection of copyright wherever the law grants it. Short excerpts may be quoted with attribution for non-commercial purposes. Systematic copying, republication or automated collection of the pages requires prior permission, requested through the contact page.

1.3 Calculator outputs

A calculator is an illustration built on stated assumptions, for example a stipend-to-salary comparison or a retirement contribution schedule. Change an assumption and the output changes. Outputs are only as reliable as their inputs and are not forecasts.

1.4 Matching procedure

Submitting a request costs nothing and creates no obligation. A member of the team reviews it and may decline it. An accepted request is offered to no more than three independent licensed advisors who work with researchers and scientists and who pay for the introduction. No agreement between a requester and an advisor makes the site a party. Fees for an advisor's services are agreed between those two parties, after the advisor supplies its own disclosures.

1.5 Advisor participation

Advisor accounts require a CRD number that matches the public SEC record at sign-up. The site may refuse or suspend an account. Fees are displayed before purchase, and an introduction does not guarantee a client. Advisors are independent parties, not agents of the site, and each remains responsible for its own registration, compliance and solicitation rules. Only advisors at SEC-registered firms can receive introductions; that is checked against the public record at sign-up and before each purchase.

1.6 Liability and revisions

Within the limits the law allows, no liability rests with the site's operators for loss that follows from using the materials, relying on a calculator output or dealing with an advisor. Nothing here limits a liability the law does not allow to be limited. The terms may be revised, and continued use after publication indicates acceptance.