Terms of Use

1. Introduction

1.1 Acceptance of terms

These terms ("Terms of Use") apply to the Forge Community (sometimes also referred to as "we" and "us"). When you use our Services you agree to our Terms of Use. Your use of our Services is also subject to our Privacy Policy which covers how we collect, use, share, and store your personal information.

You agree that by clicking "Join Now", "Join Forge Community", "Sign Up" or any similar method of registering, accessing or using our services (described below), you accept the Terms of Use of the Forge Community (even if you are using our Services on behalf of a company). If you do not accept our Terms of Use, do not click "Join Now" (or similar acknowledgments) and do not access or otherwise use any of our Services.

Services

Your agreement applies to the Forge Community Website and the Forge Community Platform sites, apps, communications and other services that state that they are offered under our Terms of Use ("Services"), including the offsite collection of data for those Services. We designate Registered users of our Services as "Members" and designate unregistered users as "Visitors." Our Terms of Use apply to both Members and Visitors.

The Forge Community

The Forge Community is an invitation-only online private community made available to select individuals, typically single family office executives and related family members. It provides features that may help users obtain and share information associated with establishing, managing, investing for, and running a single family office practice from other single family offices. Community features may include, among other things, access to articles, blog posts, webinars and interactive discussions as well as the ability to engage in conversation with other like-minded single family office personnel and share users’ experiences and knowledge in online discussion forums.

1.2 Members and visitors

When you register and join the Forge Community or become a registered user on Forge Community Platform, you become a Member. If you have chosen not to register for our Services, you may access certain features as a "Visitor."

1.3 Change

We reserve the right to make changes to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and our Cookies Policies from time to time. If we make any material changes, we will provide you with notice, either through our Services or by other appropriate means, in order to provide you with the opportunity to review the changes before they become effective. If you object to any changes, you may close your account and discontinue the use of our Services. Your continued use of our Services after we publish or send a notice regarding changes shall be deemed acceptance of the updated terms.

2. Obligations

2.1 Service Eligibility

By accepting our Terms of Use, you confirm the following: You are eligible to use our Services and are at least our "Minimum Age."
You (1) will only have one Forge account, which must be in your legal name; (2) were invited to join by a registered member of Forge; and (3) are not already restricted by Forge from using the Services. Creating an account with false information is a violation of our Terms of Use.

"Minimum Age" means 18 years old. However, if applicable law requires that you must be older than 18 in order for Forge to lawfully provide the Services to you without parental consent (including using of your personal data) then the Minimum Age shall mean such applicable legal age.

2.2 Your Account

By accepting our Terms of Use, you agree to keep your password secret.
You will not share an account with anyone else and will follow our rules and applicable law. Members are account holders. Members agree to: (1) try to choose a strong and secure password; (2) keep their password secure and confidential; (3) not transfer any part of their account (e.g., connections); and (4) follow the law and adhere to our Membership Pledge and Code of Conduct (below). You are responsible for anything that happens through your account unless you close it or report misuse.

As between you and others (including your employer or family office group leader), your account belongs to you. If the Services were provided by another party for you to use (e.g. by your employer or family office group leader), they do not have rights to your personal account.

2.3 Notices and Messages

By accepting our Terms of Use, you agree that we may provide you with notices and messages through our websites, apps, and your contact information. You agree to keep your contact information up to date.

You may alter your settings to control and limit messages provided by us. You may opt out of receiving commercial communications from us, but we reserve the right to send you transactional communications that notify you of important information regarding the service, including when the service is down.

2.4 Sharing

When you share information on our Services, others can see, copy and use that information. Our Services allow messaging and sharing of information in many ways, such as your profile, links to news articles and other content, job postings, private messages and blogs. Information and content that you share or post may be seen by other Members, Visitors or others (including off of the Services). Where we have made settings available, we will honor the choices you make about who can see content or information (e.g., message content to your addressees, sharing content only to Forge connections, and restricting your profile visibility within Forge). We are not obligated to publish any information or content on our Service and can remove any information or content in our sole discretion without notice.

3. Rights and Limits

3.1 Your License to Forge

You own all of the content, feedback, and personal information you provide to us, but you also grant us a non-exclusive license to it.
We will honor the choices you make about who gets to see your information and content. As between you and Forge, you own the content and information that you submit or post to the Services, and you are only granting Forge the following non-exclusive license: A worldwide, transferable and sublicensable right to use, copy, modify, distribute, publish, and process, information and content that you provide through our Services and the services of others, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or others. These rights are limited in the following ways:

  1. You can end this license for specific content by deleting such content from the Services, or generally by closing your account, except (a) to the extent you shared it with others as part of the Service and they copied, re-shared it or stored it and (b) for the reasonable time it takes to remove content from backup and other systems.
  2. While we may edit and make format changes to your content (such as translating it, modifying the size, layout or file type or removing metadata), we will not modify the meaning of your expression.
  3. Because you own your content and information and we only have non-exclusive rights to it, you may choose to make it available to others, including under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

If content includes personal data, its use is subject to our Privacy Policy.

You agree that we may access, store, process and use any information and personal data that you provide in accordance with the terms of the Privacy Policy, and your choices (including settings).

By submitting suggestions or other feedback regarding our Services to Forge, you agree that Forge can use and share (but does not have to) such feedback for any purpose without compensation to you.

You agree that you will only provide information and content that you have the right to share and that your Forge profile will be truthful.

You agree that you will only provide content or information that does not violate the law or anyone’s rights (including intellectual property rights). Forge may be required by law to remove certain information or content in certain countries.

3.2 Service Availability

We may change, suspend or end any Service, or change and modify prices prospectively in our discretion. To the extent allowed under law, these changes may be effective upon notice provided to you.
We may change or discontinue any of our Services. We are under no obligation to store or display any information and content that you have posted.

Forge is not a storage service. We have no obligation to store, maintain or provide copies of any content or information that you or others provide, except to the extent required by applicable law and as noted in our Privacy Policy.

3.3 Other Content, Sites and Apps

Your use of others’ content and information posted on our Services, is at your own risk.
Others may offer their own content and information through our Services, and we are not responsible for those third-party activities.

As a user of the Services, you may encounter content or information that might be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, illegal, offensive or otherwise harmful. Forge generally does not review content provided by our Members or others. We are not responsible for others’ (including other Members’) content or information. We cannot always prevent this misuse of our Services, and you agree that we are not responsible for any such misuse.

You are responsible for deciding if you want to access or use third-party apps or sites that link from our Services. If you allow a third-party app or site to authenticate you or connect with your Forge account, that app or site can access information on Forge related to you and your connections. Third-party apps and sites have their own legal terms and privacy policies, and you may be giving others permission to use your information in ways we would not. Except to the limited extent it may be required by applicable law, Forge is not responsible for these other sites and apps – use these at your own risk. Please see our Privacy Policy.

3.4 Limits

We reserve the right to limit how you connect and interact on our Services as well as the right to limit your use of the Services, including the number of your connections and your ability to contact other Members. Forge also reserves the right to restrict, suspend, or terminate your account if Forge has a reasonable basis for believing that you may be in violation of these Terms of Use or applicable law or are misusing the Services (e.g., violating any of our Membership Pledge or the Code of Conduct).

3.5 Intellectual Property Rights

We are providing you notice about our intellectual property rights. Forge reserves all of its intellectual property rights in the Services. Use of the Services does not give you any ownership interest in our Services or the content or information made available through our Services. Trademarks and logos used in connection with the Services are the trademarks of their respective owners. Forge Community and Forge Community Platform logos and other Forge trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used for our Services are trademarks or registered trademarks of Forge.

3.6 Automated Processing

We use data and information about you to make relevant suggestions to you and others. We will use the information and data that you provide and that we have about Members to make recommendations for connections, content and features that may be useful to you. For example, we use data and information about you to recommend content and member connections to you. Keeping your profile accurate and up-to-date helps us to make these recommendations more accurate and relevant.

4. Disclaimer and Limit of Liability

4.1 No Warranty

This is our disclaimer of legal liability for the quality, safety, or reliability of our Services.

TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED UNDER LAW, FORGE AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT FORGE WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) (A) DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND REPRESENTATIONS (E.G. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY OF DATA, AND NONINFRINGEMENT); (B) DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE SERVICES WILL FUNCTION WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OR ERRORS, AND (C) PROVIDE THE SERVICE (INCLUDING CONTENT AND INFORMATION) ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS.

4.2 Exclusion of Liability

These are the limits of legal liability we may have to you.

TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER LAW, FORGE AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT FORGE WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR OTHERS FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, OPPORTUNITIES, REPUTATION, PROFITS OR REVENUES, RELATED TO THE SERVICES (E.G. OFFENSIVE OR DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS, DOWN TIME OR LOSS, USE OF, OR CHANGES TO, YOUR INFORMATION OR CONTENT).

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE LIABILITY OF FORGE AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT FORGE WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) EXCEED, IN THE AGGREGATE FOR ALL CLAIMS, US $1000.

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY APPLIES TO ALL CLAIMS OF LIABILITY (E.G. WARRANTY, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, CONTRACT, LAW).

5. Termination of Relationship

We can each terminate our relationship at will.
Both you and Forge may terminate this relationship at any time with notice to the other. Upon termination, you forfeit the right to access or use the Services. The following shall survive termination:

  • Our rights to use and disclose your feedback;
  • Members and/or Visitors’ rights to further re-share content and information you shared through the Service to the extent copied or re-shared prior to termination;
  • Sections 4, 6, 7, and 8 of these Terms of Use;

You can contact info@forgecommunity.com

6. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms of Use and any disputes arising under or related to these Terms of Use (whether for breach of contract, tortuous conduct or otherwise) will be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without reference to its conflicts of law principles. You agree to submit to jurisdiction in Massachusetts and further agree that any cause of action arising under this Agreement may be brought in a court in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, and you hereby accept and submit to the personal jurisdiction of these courts with respect to any legal actions, suits or proceedings arising out of these Terms of Use. You also waive to the fullest extent permitted by law any right to a trial by jury in any action, suit or proceeding brought to enforce, defend or interpret any right or remedies under, or arising in connection with or relating to, these Terms of Use.

7. General Terms

Here are some important details about our Terms of Use. If a court of competent authority determines that any of these Terms of Use are unenforceable, such court may modify them to make those parts that are objectionable enforceable consistent with our intent. Any provisions not otherwise modified will remain in effect.

You may not assign or transfer your membership or use of the Services without our consent.

8. Forge Professional Community Commitments

Forge is a community of family office executives. As a Member or Visitor, you commit to complying with all applicable laws, including, without limitation, privacy laws, intellectual property laws, anti-spam laws, export control laws, tax laws, and regulatory requirements. You also commit to:

  • Providing accurate information to us and keeping it updated;
  • Using your legal name on your profile; and
  • Using the Services in a non-commercial, safe and professional manner.

You also commit not to:

  • Solicit other Forge participants for personal or other information such as email addresses, contact information, log-in or account information;
  • Use any individual’s name, likeness or voice, in whole or in part, including but not limited to e-mail addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses or other forms of contact information without permission;
  • Collect or store personal information about other Forge participants;
  • Promote, encourage, hype, tout, offer or sell any product or service through the Services, including but not limited to financial products, investments or services;
  • Create a false identity on Forge, misrepresent your identity, create a Member profile for anyone other than yourself (a real person), or use or attempt to use another’s account;
  • Develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots, or any other means or processes (including crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons, or any other technology) to scrape the Services or otherwise copy profiles and other data from the Services;
  • Override any security feature or bypass or circumvent any access controls or use limits of the Service (such as caps on keyword searches or profile views);
  • Copy, use, disclose or distribute any information obtained from the Services, whether directly or through third parties (such as search engines), without the consent of Forge;
  • Disclose information that you do not have the consent to disclose (such as confidential information of others (including your employer));
  • Violate the intellectual property rights of others, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights. For example, do not copy or distribute (except through the available sharing functionality) the posts or other content of others without their permission, which they may give by posting under a Creative Commons license;
  • Violate the intellectual property or other rights of Forge, including, without limitation, (i) copying or distributing our learning videos or other materials or (ii) copying or distributing our technology, unless it is released under open source licenses; (iii) using the word "Forge" or our logos in any business name, email, or URL except with written permission from Forge;
  • Engage in harassing, bullying, intimidation or other similar activity.
  • Use hate speech, vulgarity, or other similar communications.
  • Use behavior that does not support a safe and comfortable environment for all users, including obscenities, discriminatory language, or other language not suitable for a public forum, or to engage in any proselytizing, commercial activity, or political campaigning.
  • Use language which violates or infringes in any way on the rights of others; or otherwise is threatening, abusive, defamatory, or invasive of privacy or publicity rights; suggests or encourages conduct which is a state or federal offense; or gives rise to civil liability or otherwise violates any state or federal law.
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decipher or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Services or any related technology that is not open source;
  • Imply or state that you are affiliated with or endorsed by Forge without our express consent (e.g., representing yourself as a Forge speaker);
  • Promote, discuss or respond to any media inquiry regarding your participation in the Web Site without the express permission of Forge.
  • Rent, lease, loan, trade, sell/re-sell or otherwise monetize the Services or related data or access to the same, without Forge’s consent;
  • Deep-link to our Services for any purpose other than to promote your profile or a Group on our Services, without Forge’s consent;
  • Use bots or other automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages;
  • Monitor the Services’ availability, performance or functionality for any competitive purpose;
  • Engage in "framing," "mirroring," or otherwise simulating the appearance or function of the Services;
  • Overlay or otherwise modify the Services or their appearance (such as by inserting elements into the Services or removing, covering, or obscuring an advertisement included on the Services);
  • Interfere with the operation of, or place an unreasonable load on, the Services (e.g., spam, denial of service attack, viruses, gaming algorithms); and/or
  • Violate the Membership Pledge or any additional terms concerning a specific Service that are provided when you sign up for or start using such Service.

8.1 Acknowledgements

You acknowledge that,

  • Any decision to engage in an investment strategy based on any information published on the Forge Community Web Site is based solely on your own research and considerations of the risks and your financial circumstances or the financial circumstances of persons or entities on whose behalf you are authorized to act. You will determine which investments are right for you or persons or entities on whose behalf you are authorized to act based on my or their investment objectives, risk tolerance, financial situation and other individual factors and re-evaluate them on a periodic basis.
  • All statements, views, opinions or information expressed by you are your own and not those of Forge or any other individual or participant in the Web Site.
  • Forge takes no responsibility for any statements, views, opinions or information that you may post within the Web Site, and that you are solely and fully responsible for your investment decisions.
  • Forge takes no responsibility for satisfying the compliance obligations you or other Members or Visitors have under securities law, rules or regulations including with respect to approval, supervision, or retention of electronic communications.
  • If Members or Visitors are under certain regulatory obligations, those Members or Visitors may retain conversations or posts solely for the purposes of adhering to securities law, rules or regulations
  • Forge makes no guarantees that information supplied on the Web Site is accurate, complete, or timely, and does not provide any warranties regarding results obtained from its use.
  • Forge does not endorse or adopt the information submitted through the Web Site.
  • You may receive emails from Forge regarding Web Site activities

9. Complaints Regarding Content

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. We require that information posted by Members be accurate and not in violation of the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties. To bring any concerns to our attention, please contact us at: info@forgecommunity.com.

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