Services

Escalator provides discretionary portfolio management together with financial planning, both delivered through the Escalator mobile application. The full description of each service — including limitations, conflicts, and risks — is in Form ADV Part 2A, Item 4.

Portfolio management

Escalator provides discretionary portfolio management services. Portfolios are constructed using broadly-diversified, low-cost index ETFs and are managed according to each client's investment objectives, risk tolerance, and time horizon. Escalator employs automated rebalancing based on tested methodologies. No artificial intelligence or large language models are used in the investment advisory process, portfolio construction, or any client recommendations. All investment decisions are made by Escalator's human advisory personnel.

Clients are encouraged to update their account with any changes in their goals, risk tolerance, or other pertinent information, as this information factors into the portfolio's composition.

Financial planning

Escalator provides financial planning as an ancillary service included in the advisory fee described on the Fees page; Escalator does not offer standalone financial planning for a separate fee. Financial planning is delivered through the Escalator application — Escalator does not produce a stand-alone written financial plan document.

Financial planning includes:

• Cash-flow and budgeting analysis, and a financial-health summary (savings rate, emergency-fund coverage, debt-to-income, and net worth).
• Retirement and goal-projection modeling using Monte Carlo simulations.
• Savings-rate and contribution guidance, including guidance on prioritizing repayment of higher-interest debt.
• Financial-planning advice on prioritizing tax-advantaged retirement accounts, capturing an available employer-plan match, and Roth-versus-traditional considerations.
• Retirement-income advice, including individualized Social Security claiming analysis and withdrawal-sequencing advice.
• Tax-efficiency guidance, including asset-location and account-type considerations.
• An educational estate-planning checklist (wills, financial and healthcare powers of attorney, guardianship for minor children, and beneficiary designations).
• Modeling for an anticipated or received lump sum (such as proceeds from the sale of a business or an inheritance).
• Goal tracking and a periodic check-in.

Financial planning does not include: a stand-alone written financial plan; estate planning, will or trust drafting, or beneficiary-specific advice (we provide an educational checklist only); tax preparation, tax filing, or transaction-specific tax advice; insurance product recommendations; debt counseling, credit repair, or negotiation with creditors; or advice on, or management of, assets held outside the Escalator-managed account.

Account aggregation and cash-flow tools (optional)

Escalator offers an optional account-aggregation feature that allows clients to securely link external bank and credit-card accounts so that the Escalator platform can display balances and transaction history and provide cash-flow and budgeting analysis. The link is established through a third-party data-aggregation service. Access is read-only: neither Escalator nor the aggregation service has authority to move funds. Aggregation is opt-in and the client may revoke access at any time.

Account aggregation is available to clients whose Household Portfolio is at or above $20,000 at the time of enabling the feature, and remains active as long as the Household Portfolio is at or above $5,000.

Funding automation (optional)

Escalator offers optional tools that help clients fund their advisory account at Altruist on a recurring basis. The client elects either no recurring transfer or a standing-schedule automatic ACH instruction. Standing transfer instructions are created and held at Altruist; the client may modify or revoke them directly with Altruist at any time. Escalator does not have access to client bank-account login credentials and does not charge a fee for funding-automation tools.

What we recommend — and what we do not

Escalator limits its investment advice to broadly-diversified, low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Through those ETFs we provide diversified exposure to U.S. and international equities, fixed income (held via bond ETFs), real estate (held via REIT ETFs), and broad-basket commodities (held via commodity ETFs, with gold exposure available on a client-opt-in basis).

We do not recommend or select: individual stocks, individual bonds, individual REIT securities, individual commodity positions, mutual funds, options or other listed derivatives, alternative investments (including private equity, private credit, private real-estate funds, and infrastructure funds), cryptocurrency, or direct real estate. We do not recommend margin transactions.

Limitations

Escalator does not provide accounting, legal, or tax advice. Escalator does not sell insurance products and does not recommend specific insurance policies or annuity contracts. Where insurance, tax, or legal topics arise in financial-planning conversations, our discussion is educational and clients are encouraged to consult separately-licensed professionals.

The summaries above are illustrative. The complete and current description of Escalator's services — including all material risks and conflicts of interest — is set out in Form ADV Part 2A, which you can download from the Disclosures page.