Terms and Conditions

Who these terms are with

These terms apply when you use this website, which is operated by Planning by Design. By using the site you agree to what is written here. If you do not agree, please do not use it.

This site is educational

Everything here is published for general education. It is not individualised financial, tax, legal or insurance advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy anything. Nothing on this site has been prepared for your particular situation, because we do not know your situation until we talk.

Ben Shackelford is an insurance licensed professional. He is not a registered investment adviser and does not provide securities advice. Reading the site, using a tool on it, subscribing to emails, or booking a session does not create an advisory or fiduciary relationship.

About guarantees

Where this site refers to guaranteed income, that guarantee comes from an insurance contract and is subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Annuities are not FDIC insured and are not bank guaranteed. Surrender charges and limits on access to your money apply. Any figures shown are illustrative, not a prediction of your results, and whether a product suits you has to be assessed individually by a licensed professional.

The tools on this site

Any diagnostic, calculator or questionnaire here produces a general illustration based only on the answers you type in. It does not review your accounts, your tax return or your household. Treat the output as the start of a conversation, not as a plan and not as a promise.

The assistant on this site

The chat assistant is powered by a third-party AI provider. It can be wrong and it can be incomplete. Do not rely on it for decisions about your money, and please do not type account numbers, Social Security numbers or other sensitive identifiers into it.

Booking a session

A Retirement Income Review is a conversation, not a commitment. Booking one does not oblige you to become a client and does not oblige us to accept you as one. Ben is licensed in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, and is completing licensing in Oklahoma and New Mexico. He can only do work for residents of states where he holds a licence.

Emails you ask for

If you subscribe, we send what was described at the point of signup. Every email carries an unsubscribe link and it works on the first click.

Text messages you ask for

If you tick a consent box on our sign-up form, Planning by Design will send text messages to the mobile number you give us. There are two separate programs, each with its own consent box, and you may accept one, both or neither.

Service messages cover appointment reminders, confirmations, and replies to questions you send us. Marketing messages cover educational notes, occasional updates about what we offer, and invitations to events. Consenting to either is never a condition of working with us or of any purchase.

Message frequency may vary. Message and data rates may apply, and those charges come from your mobile carrier rather than from us. To stop receiving messages, reply STOP to any message and we will stop, immediately and permanently. For help, reply HELP, or contact us at ben@designfinancial.info or on (903) 918-4272. Mobile carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

We do not share your mobile number or your consent to be texted with anyone else for their own marketing.

Age restriction

This site and our text message program are intended for people aged 18 or older. Please do not use the site or give us your mobile number if you are under 18.

How you may use the site

You may read, print and share these pages for your own personal, non-commercial use. Please do not republish the content commercially, scrape or bulk download the site, try to break or overload it, misrepresent who you are, or use it for anything unlawful.

Who owns what is here

The content, design, logos and marks on this site belong to Planning by Design or to whoever licensed them to us. Using the site does not transfer any of those rights to you.

Links to other sites

We sometimes link to third-party websites and articles. We do not control them and we are not responsible for their content, their accuracy or their privacy practices. A link is not an endorsement.

What we can and cannot promise

We work to keep this site accurate and available, but we provide it as is. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error free or current, and tax rules, product terms and rates all change after a page is published.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Planning by Design is not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential losses arising from your use of this site or from anything you read on it. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot be limited by law.

Your privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why, where it is stored, how it is protected, and how to ask for it to be deleted. It forms part of these terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict of law rules. Any dispute will be handled in the state or federal courts located in Texas.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the site or our services change. The version posted here is the one that applies. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the update.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Email ben@designfinancial.info or call (903) 918-4272. Our office is at 101 East Blvd, Suite 202, Plano, TX 75074.