SmartAsset’s mission is to provide accurate, reliable and objective personal finance advice. We empower people to make smart financial decisions by providing innovative tools and comprehensive content to help users find the best answers to their financial questions. Through our content, we also match people with professional financial advisors who can help them navigate the path to achieving their financial goals. To accomplish this, we remain steadfast in our goal that our tools, content and recommendations are based on timely, accurate and objective research and findings.
This mission translates into the following editorial principles:
- Accuracy: We rely on well-rounded and direct sources for our content, and employ vigorous fact-checking practices. Our content is periodically updated for the latest economic context, facts, figures and other changing information.
- Trustworthiness: SmartAsset has been creating personal finance content across many different topic areas for more than 10 years. All editorial content on SmartAsset is managed by SmartAsset editorial staff, as well as independent contractors under its supervision. We also strive for maximum transparency and communication with our readers. When evaluating any financial products, we clearly label any partner, sponsored or advertising content and placements.
- Independence: The editorial decisions our journalists make that inform our content and evaluations are never influenced by any advertisers, affiliated partners or other means of financial impact. We do not create or modify content for anything other than providing the best analyses and information we can to our readers, and we do not alter content in order to promote partner products. Our writers are not in contact with any advertiser or partner (except for research purposes or for requesting interviews for quotations) before or during the writing of our editorial content; nor are they directly compensated based on the success of the affiliate links. Any editorial decisions that use assessment language (“best,” “top,” etc.) or visual cues are the result of a methodology that we determine separately from our partner and advertiser relationships.
- Expertise: Our staff writers are designated by the Institute for Financial Literacy as Certified Educators in Personal Finance (CEPF®). We base all recommendations, reviews and comparisons on comprehensive research, as well as data analysis when necessary. Our expert financial review board is composed of professionals across the financial industry, including the likes of Certified Financial Planners (CFP), Certified Public Accountants (CPA) and more.
- Objectivity: We find, analyze and present information in a clear and unbiased fashion. Partisanship, nor business partners, have any place in our editorial decisions or content.
