A century-old personal-finance publisher whose "best of" picks are editor-curated against stated criteria, but it earns affiliate commissions on the products it features and its Readers' Choice Awards reward popularity, not hands-on testing.
What it's really for A personal-finance publisher blending criteria-based picks with reader-survey awards.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its bank, fund, and broker rankings and awards, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Retailers and advertisers pay Kiplinger the most via affiliate commissions and ad/sponsored placements; Kiplinger states its editors do not consider commercial agreements when selecting products, and sponsored items are labeled, so paid spend does not officially buy editorial rankings.
Source →- Operating since
- 1920 (106 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- Kiplinger makes money from display advertising, labeled sponsored content, magazine and newsletter subscriptions, and affiliate commissions earned when readers click or buy through product links in its articles.
- What they do
- Kiplinger publishes personal-finance journalism plus rankings and "best of" lists of banks, funds, brokers, and wealth managers, blending editor-curated criteria-based picks with reader-survey awards.
- What to watch for
- It is a financial publisher, not a hands-on testing lab: by its own disclosure it earns affiliate fees on featured products, and its Readers' Choice Awards rank firms by reader satisfaction surveys rather than independent product testing.
- Composite score
- 2.80 / 5.00 → grade C+
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- Kiplinger states the affiliate fee is paid to it by the retailer and that its expert editorial teams are independent, selecting products on unbiased judgment without considering retailers or commercial agreements; sponsored content is labeled. Source: Kiplinger - Content funding / About Us →
- Founded in 1920 by W.M. Kiplinger; the family-held firm was sold to Dennis Publishing in February 2019, and Future plc acquired Dennis (and thus Kiplinger) in 2021. Source: Wikipedia - Kiplinger →
- Kiplinger's 'Best Banks' use defined criteria (fees, yields, minimums) with data partner Curinos, while its Readers' Choice Awards rank firms from a reader survey of over 4,200 respondents rating satisfaction and likelihood to recommend. Source: Kiplinger - How We Pick the Best Banks / Readers' Choice Awards →