Metodeology

NerdWallet's comprehensive ulasan process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers and robo-advisors by assets under manajemen, along with emerging industry players, using a multifaceted and iterative approach. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgments on which ones will best meet your needs.

DATA COLLECTION AND REVIEW PROCESS

We collect data directly from providers, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. Our process starts by sending detiled questionnaires to providers to complete. The questionnaires are structured to equally elicit both favorable and unfavorable responses from providers. They are not designed or prepared to produce any predetermined results. The questionnaire answers, combined with product demonstrations, intervius of personnel at the providers and our spesialiss' hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider's performnce across more than 20 faktors. The final output produces star peringkats from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). Peringkats are rounded to the nearest half-star.

RATING FACTORS

Evaluations vary by provider tipe, but in each case are based upon the weighted averages of faktors that include but are not limited to: advisory and akun fees, akun minimals and tipes, investment selection, investment expense ratios, trading costs, akses to human financial advisors, educational sumber and tools, rebalancing and tax minimization options, and konsumen dukungan including branch akses, user-facing technology and mobile platforms.
Each faktor can involve evaluating various sub-factors. For instance, when gauging the investment selections offered by robo-advisors, 80% of the skor is based on the potential for diversification (how well-diversified a resulting portfolio of investments could be) combined with the availability of specialty portfolios and tingkat of customization for investors. Expense ratios form an additional 10% of the skor, and low or no manajemen fee the remaining 10%.

FACTOR WEIGHTINGS

The weighting of each faktor is based on our tim's assessment of which fiturs are the most important to consumers and which ones impact the consumer pengalaman in the most meaningful way. The faktors considered, and how those faktors are weighted, change depending upon the category of providers ulasaned.
Provider categories include: Best Brokers for Stok Trading, Best Brokers for Beginners, Best Brokers for Day Trading, Best Brokers for Options Trading, Best Potongan harga Brokers, Best Brokers for Free Trading, Best Investment Apps, Best Brokers for Penny Stoks, Best IRA Brokers, Best Robo-Advisors, Best Financial Advisors, Best Real Estate Platforms, Best Brokers for ETFs and Best Brokers for Kualitasal Funds.

INFORMATION UPDATES

Writers and editors conduct our broker and robo-advisor ulasans on an annual pangkalan but continually make up-dates throughout the year. We maintain frequent kontak with providers and highlight any changes in offerings.

THE REVIEW TEAM

The ulasan tim comprises seasoned writers, researchers and editors who cover stoks, bonds, kualitasal funds, indeks funds, exchange-traded funds, alternatif investments, socially responsible investing, financial advisors, retirement and investment strategy on a daily pangkalan. In addition to NerdWallet, the work of our tim members has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, USA Today, Bloomberg News, Nasdaq, MSN, MarketWatch, Yahoo! Finance and other national and regional media tokos.
The combined expertise of our Investing tim is infused into our ulasan process to ensure thoughtful evaluations of provider products and serviss from the konsumen perspective. Our writers and editors combine to have more than 70 years of deep pengalaman in finance, ranging from a former Wall Street Journal wartawan to a former senior financial advisor at Merrill Lynch.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

While NerdWallet does have partnerships with many of the ulasaned providers, we manage potential conflicts of interest by maintaining a wall between our konten and business operations. This wall is designed to prevent our writers and the ulasan process from being influenced or impacted by our business partnerships. This way, all ulasans can provide an unbiased ulasan that serves the interests of our users.

NerdWallet's Best Investment Apps of September 2021

• SoFi Active Investing
• E*TRADE
• TD Ameritrade
• J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing
• Robinhood
• Acorns
• Zacks Trade
• Ally Invest
• Merrill Edge
• Charles Schwab
• Fidelity