Terms of Service

1. The service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Steward ("we," "us," or "our") governing your use of the Steward applications and services (the "Service"). By creating an account or using Steward, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

Steward is a fund-based personal budgeting service. It lets you organize money into named funds, plan monthly budgets, record or import transactions (including optional read-only bank connections), and — on paid tiers — receive AI-generated budgeting suggestions. Steward is a planning tool: it never holds, moves, or transfers your money, and it never makes financial changes on your behalf.

2. Eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years old to create a Steward account.
• At launch, Steward is available to residents of the United States and Canada. We hope to be where you are soon if that's not you yet.
• You must provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date.
• You may not use the Service if you have previously been suspended or removed from it for violating these Terms.

3. Your account and security

You are responsible for your account credentials and for all activity that happens under your account. A few ground rules that protect both of us:

• Choose a strong, unique password and keep it to yourself. Steward stores passwords only as one-way cryptographic hashes — we cannot read them.
• Notify us promptly at security@steward.example if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.
• Only connect bank accounts you are authorized to access. Bank connections are read-only and handled by our connectivity partner; Steward never sees your bank credentials.
• Accounts are personal. Paid tiers that include multiple users (for example, a shared household budget) permit those named users only — not resale or general sharing.

4. Subscriptions and billing

Steward is free during the beta period. At general availability, Steward plans to offer three tiers: Manual Mode (free), Essentials ($9.99/month or $99/year), and Premium ($14.99/month or $149/year). Planned prices are in USD (or the local equivalent shown at checkout) and exclude applicable taxes; you will always see the price before you are charged. Payments are processed by Stripe; Steward never stores your full card number.

• Automatic renewal. Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or annual) until you cancel. We will notify you in advance of any price change, and it will take effect no earlier than your next renewal.
• Cancellation. You can cancel anytime in your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep paid features until then, and you will not be charged again.
• After cancellation, your account moves to the free tier. Your data is not deleted (see the free tier promise below).
• Refunds. Except where required by law, payments are non-refundable and we do not provide refunds or credits for partial billing periods. If something has genuinely gone wrong, contact us — we're humans, and we'd rather make it right.
• Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails, we will retry it and notify you. If it continues to fail, your subscription lapses to the free tier — your data stays put.

5. The free tier promise

Manual Mode is a genuine, permanent free tier. It includes the complete fund-based budgeting system with manual transaction entry, subject to published usage limits (currently up to 15 fund categories and 100 manual transactions per month).

• We will never delete your data because you are on the free tier. Older history may be archived per our data retention schedule, and it becomes accessible again if you upgrade.
• The free tier is completely ad-free, like every other tier.
• No credit card is required to use the free tier.

6. Acceptable use

Use Steward for its intended purpose: managing budgets you are entitled to manage. You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose, including money laundering, fraud, or evading legal obligations.
• Access or attempt to access accounts, funds, or data belonging to others without authorization.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, interfere with its operation, or circumvent rate limits, usage limits, or security measures.
• Reverse engineer, scrape, or copy the Service, or use automated means to extract data other than your own exports.
• Resell, sublicense, or provide the Service to third parties as your own offering.
• Upload malicious code or content that infringes the rights of others.

We may suspend or terminate accounts engaged in these activities to protect our users and the Service.

7. AI guidance disclaimer

Some Steward features use artificial intelligence to suggest fund categories, budget amounts, or financial insights. AI suggestions are always labeled as AI-generated, and nothing happens to your budget until you confirm it. Our standing disclaimer, which appears wherever AI output is shown, applies throughout the Service:

“AI guidance is informational only — it isn't financial, legal, or tax advice. Steward never moves money or applies changes without your confirmation. For big decisions, talk to a licensed professional.”

AI output may be incomplete or inaccurate. You are responsible for reviewing any suggestion before acting on it, and every financial decision made in or outside Steward is yours alone.

8. No financial advice; not a fiduciary

Steward is budgeting software, not a financial advisor. Nothing in the Service — including AI-generated guidance, templates, projections, articles, or support responses — constitutes financial, investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Steward is not a fiduciary, broker-dealer, investment advisor, bank, or money services business, and no advisory or fiduciary relationship is created by your use of the Service.

For advice about your specific circumstances, consult a qualified professional.

9. Your data and privacy

Your data belongs to you. How we collect, use, protect, and never sell it is described in our Privacy Policy, which is part of these Terms. Highlights: we never sell your data, Steward is completely ad-free, you can export your data at any time, and you can delete your account (with a 30-day grace period to change your mind) whenever you choose.

10. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by law, Steward disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-interruption. We do not warrant that imported bank data, balances, projections, or AI suggestions are accurate, complete, or current — always verify important figures against your bank's own records.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Steward and its officers, employees, and partners will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages — including lost profits, lost savings, or financial decisions made in reliance on the Service. Our total aggregate liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or (b) $100 USD. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

11. Termination

• By you: you may stop using Steward or delete your account at any time in Settings. Deletion includes a 30-day grace period, after which your data is permanently removed as described in the Privacy Policy. You can export your data before deleting.
• By us: we may suspend or terminate your access if you materially violate these Terms, create risk or legal exposure for us or other users, or if we discontinue the Service. Where practical and lawful, we will give you notice and a reasonable opportunity to export your data first.
• Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including disclaimers, limitations of liability, and governing law) survive.

12. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles, and disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Delaware. (Governing law and venue are placeholders pending final legal review, and consumer-protection laws of your place of residence may grant you additional rights that these Terms do not limit.)

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes we will notify you by email and with an in-app notice at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance; if you do not agree, you may export your data and close your account before the changes take effect.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email legal@steward.example — a real person will get back to you.