Terms of engagement

1. Who you are engaging

Engagements are with Garrett Place Advisors Corp., trading as Garrett Lane Advisors. Work is delivered personally by William S. Best. There are no associates and no handover after the first meeting; if that ever needs to change, you will be told before it does.

2. Scope

Every engagement is scoped in writing before work begins: what we are working on, how long it runs, who else is told, and what would make it a success. Work outside that scope is agreed separately, in writing, before it starts.

3. Fees and billing

• Engagements run on a monthly retainer, agreed in advance. There is no hourly billing and no charge for access between scheduled sessions.
• Where an engagement has a defined, measurable outcome, part of the fee may be structured as a success fee, with the trigger, the measure and the amount agreed at the outset.
• Coaching and board effectiveness engagements are retainer-only. No contingent fee attaches to work whose value depends on its independence.
• Invoices are issued monthly and payable on receipt. Travel outside Chicago and Toronto is billed at cost, agreed in advance.

4. Confidentiality

Everything a client says is held in confidence. Where an engagement is sponsored by a board, chair or investor, what is reported back — normally themes and progress, not content — is agreed with you before the engagement starts, and you see anything written about you before anyone else does. Confidentiality survives the end of the engagement.

5. Independence and conflicts

The practice declines work where it already acts for a direct competitor, or for a party on the other side of a live transaction. It holds no placement, search or introduction fees and takes no commission for onward referrals. If a conflict emerges mid-engagement, you will be told immediately and the engagement will be paused or ended.

6. What this is not

Advice given is business and governance advice drawn from operating and board experience. It is not legal, tax, audit, investment or regulatory advice, and it is not a substitute for your lawyers, accountants, auditors or bankers. Where a decision needs any of those, you will be told to go and get it.

7. Your responsibilities

Advice is only as good as what it is based on. You agree to provide accurate and complete information, to say when something material changes, and to tell the practice about anything that would affect its independence. Decisions remain yours; the practice does not act as an officer, director or agent of your organisation except where a separate board appointment says so.

8. Intellectual property

Reports, findings and materials prepared for you are yours to use inside your organisation. Frameworks, methods and tools the practice brings to the work remain its own. Neither party quotes the other publicly, or names the other as a client or adviser, without written consent.

9. Liability

The practice's aggregate liability arising from an engagement is limited to the fees paid for it, except where liability cannot be limited by law. It is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for outcomes that depend on decisions taken by you.

10. Ending an engagement

Either party may end an engagement on 60 days’ written notice. Retainer fees are payable to the end of the notice period; success fees already earned remain payable; nothing further is owed. Every engagement also has a defined close built into it, and an honest conversation about whether continuing adds anything.

11. Website

Material on this site is provided for general information. Figures describing past roles are drawn from audited or internally reported results of the organisations named and are stated as of the periods given; they describe past performance and are not a forecast of anything. Nothing here is an offer, and no adviser relationship is created by reading it or by sending an enquiry.

12. Governing law

Engagements are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, and the courts of Illinois have jurisdiction.