On-going Advice and Investment Management Agreement

Please fill out, sign, and submit this form to keep getting our investment management and related financial advice.

This agreement was created by Ward Williams, a Registered Investment Advisor in Washington state doing business as Better Tomorrow Financial, a trade name of Long Habit LLC, which is solely owned by Ward.

Contact us at info@bettertomorrowfinancial.com, or 253-655-7627.

This contract ("Agreement") is entered into between Better Tomorrow Financial ("BTF/Advisor/We/Us/I/Me") and ...

Description of our services

... ("Client/You".) Your Advisor shall manage your assets and provide incidental, on-going advice on demand to help you achieve your financial goals.

We recommend you work with your Advisor to migrate your non-workplace retirement assets to our money management platform so that we can more easily manage your investments as well as take advantage of down markets to 'tax-loss harvest' for you.

BTF will have discretionary trading authority--the ability to buy and sell investments on your behalf in accordance with your wishes-- over any accounts that you choose to open up with us using our asset management platform, Altruist.com.
If you choose 'Yes' you'll receive an email later from Altruist-- our investment platform-- once we create the invite for you. It's costless to do and you can change your mind later.

Fees and Billing

Retainer Plan: A flat investment management fee of $105/month ($1,260/year) to be directly debited from your brokerage account* that is managed by us.

You will be notified at least one month in advance if this monthly fee increases, as it likely will in January of each year with inflation once per year.


One-time set up costs for new clients: For new clients who have NOT gone through our comprehensive financial planning process-- or a similar amount of hourly planning-- you will be charged a one-time set up fee for 4 hours of our time, which at our hourly rate of $275/hour = $1,100. This is in addition to the monthly fee, but does NOT recur in future years.

This hourly time purchase covers:
1) meeting with you to understand your investing goals and answer any questions you have before we allocate your assets.
2) the one-time work we have to do to get your assets transferred over to our platform.

Electronic invoice(s) will be provided to you for all fees via our brokerage platform. Fees will be deducted in arrears at the end of each month.

*If you choose not to move your investment accounts to our platform, you must either (1) pay the annual fee in advance at the time of this agreement and then before the start of each subsequent year (January 1st) or (2) have at least one account on our platform just for billing purposes. You will need to fund it each year with an amount equal to your upcoming annual fees. Each December you will need to make sure you have at least the next year's fee in that account.

If you choose (1), you are still of course entitled to a pro-rated refund for any months in which you did not use our services if you end this agreement
If your advisor told you your Retainer Plan fee was going to be $75/month, enter '75'.

Client and Advisor Responsibilities

You promise to make a good-faith effort to inform your Advisor if there are any significant changes in your financial or life situation that would affect how BTF manages your investments. (Ex: cash emergency, relationship changes, job loss, change in goals.) You promise to meet when necessary and respond to communications from Us to gather relevant info on your situation so that BTF can customize our services to meet your specific needs.

As an investment adviser registered under the Securities Act of Washington and other applicable federal and state securities laws, We owe You a fiduciary duty to put Your interests first. This duty includes, but is not limited to, a duty of care, loyalty, obedience, and utmost good faith.

Other Important Information

Incentives & compensation: Better Tomorrow Financial is a fee-only advisor and therefore receives no compensation in the course of its investment advisory business from any source except Our clients.

Our retainer + asset management fee is flat in real dollars and does not go up with an increase in your assets: We differ from many advisory practices in that We do not charge any percentage of ‘assets under management’ to manage Your investments. Instead, we charge a flat dollar fee that you does NOT vary with your assets. (In some special circumstances, if you have very few assets, we might reduce our fee to a percentage until you reach a threshold amount of total assets.) You should expect our annual fee to increase annually with inflation, however.

This saves the typical client thousands of dollars per year in investing fees. We think this is a more ethical and financially beneficial advisory model for You.

For billing purposes, We count a ‘household’ as a financial unit that our single fee applies to, so committed/married couples with shared finances are counted as one ‘household’ and are encouraged to each open accounts at our money management platform.

Refunds and Early Termination: If you cancel in writing (email preferred) within five (5) days of signing this agreement, you are entitled to a full refund under the law. If you want to cancel after that you will pay for the month(s) of money management you've already consumed, or as long as your accounts are still under our management if you've chosen to move them to our platform.

Fees to transfer out accounts: Our custodian charges us $75/account (each brokerage or IRA is counted as 1 account; it is not per person) to transfer an entire account out of our platform. If you've paid at least that much in fees cumulatively we will pay any of those costs to help you transfer your money elsewhere. If you've paid less than those costs, you will need to make up the difference from your own funds. You will never pay for anything that BTF itself does not have to pay to our money management platform (i.e.: BTF charges no additional fees for transferring accounts; the fees come from the custodian we use to manage your assets.)

Example 1: you've already been enrolled a year and paid $1,260 in total fees. You decide to leave, and we transfer your 2 brokerages and 2 IRAs for 4 accounts total. BTF pays $75 * 4 = $300 to transfer the accounts, but you pay NOTHING since you've paid more than $300 in fees.

Example 2: You enroll for 1 month and pay $105 and then decide to have us move your 2 accounts elsewhere. This costs BTF $150, so you would owe $45 ($150 - $105) of the transfer fees net of your total Retainer payments to BTF.

Complete confidentiality: All information furnished by You to Us shall be treated as confidential and not disclosed to third parties except as agreed upon or required by law. Our Privacy Statement can be found online at https://bettertomorrowfinancial.com/privacy-policy/

Legal Bits

We aren't Lawyers or Accountants: We are not qualified to and will not render any legal advice nor prepare any legal documents for the implementation of Your financial plan. You agree that You or Your personal attorney shall be solely responsible for: (i) all legal advice; (ii) all legal opinions and determinations; and (iii) all legal documents. Similarly, Your tax attorney, software, or accountant should be relied upon for Your primary source of tax advice, tax opinions and determinations, and tax-related documents.

Data Storage and Documentation: All foreseeable documents, invoices, financial plans, meeting logistics, and recommendations will be handled electronically (email, Google Office, Google Meet, to name a few tools we'll use to gather and share information.)

Severability: Any provision of this Contract which is prohibited or unenforceable shall be ineffective to the extent of such prohibition or unenforceability without invalidating the remaining provisions hereof.

Miscellaneous: Advisor is not responsible for the independent acts, omissions, or insolvency of any agent, broker, or independent contractor selected to perform any action on behalf of Client. This disclosure document represents the complete Contract of the parties with regard to the subject matter and supersedes any prior understanding, agreements, or contracts, oral or written.

Assignment: The Adviser will make no direct or indirect assignment or transfer of the contract without the written consent of the client.

Governing Law: The investment advisory services performed by Us shall be in compliance with applicable state and federal laws regulating the services provided under this Agreement. This Agreement will be construed on the laws of the State of Washington. For clients residing in Washington, this advisory contract shall not waive or limit compliance with, or require indemnification for any violations of, any provision of the Securities Act of Washington, chapter 21.20 RCW, or the rules adopted thereunder.

Arbitration: This arbitration clause may not be enforceable in all jurisdictions.

To the extent not inconsistent with applicable law, at the sole and exclusive option of Advisor, any controversy or claim arising out of this Contract, or any breach thereof, or arising out of the services provided by Advisor and its employees hereunder, shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Commercial Rules of the American Arbitration Association, before one arbitrator in Seattle, Washington, or within 20 miles of Advisor's place of business, and judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitrator shall be final and may be entered in any court having jurisdiction. No punitive or non-compensatory damages shall be awarded. If any provision of this Contract is held by any court or in any arbitration to be invalid, void, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall nevertheless continue in full force and effect.

Required Disclosures: We are an investment advisor registered with the State of Washington. We have delivered to You information providing disclosures regarding Our background and business practices in Form ADV, Part 2, which You acknowledge receipt of here: https://bettertomorrowfinancial.com/adv-part-2/. Our place of business is in Seattle, Washington.

Client agrees that Advisor, or any third party providing services to Advisor, bears no responsibility for any loss or damage caused by force majeure circumstances. Nothing in this Agreement may be interpreted to limit or modify the investment adviser’s fiduciary duties to its clients and nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed a waiver of any right or remedy that a client may have under federal or state securities laws. Federal and state securities laws impose liabilities under certain circumstances on persons who act in good faith.

Force Majeure circumstances: Force majeure circumstances are extraordinary events or those beyond Advisor’s control that include (but are not limited to): Acts of God (including fire, flood, earthquake, storm, hurricane or other natural disaster), disease epidemic outbreak, war, invasion, act of foreign enemies, hostilities (regardless of whether war is declared), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power or confiscation, terrorist activities, nationalization, government sanction, blockage, embargo, labor dispute, strike, civil disorder, actions of government, market closures and fluctuations (financial, real asset or other markets), economic recessions and depressions, corporate and other organizational bankruptcies, lockout or interruption or failure of electricity, internet or telephone service.

THE UNDERSIGNED HAS/HAVE READ THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT AND THE UNDERSIGNED AGREE(S) TO ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS HEREIN, AND ACKNOWLEDGE(S) RECEIPT OF A COPY OF THIS CONTRACT.

AGREED AND ACCEPTED: