Find reviews of a financial advisor
Who reviews a financial advisor, and can you trust them?
Plumb does not review a financial advisor itself. We tell you which sites do, and grade each on the one thing that decides whether to believe it: how independent and evidence-based the ranking is.
| Grade | Review site | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | B- | Grades: its banded rankings of lawyers and firms Genuinely research-led rankings of lawyers and law firms, but Chambers earns big money selling profiles and marketing to the very firms it ranks; critics say the line between research and revenue has blurred. |
| 2 | C+ | Grades: its prestige ranking of accounting firms Independent and transparent, but it measures reputation, not whether the work is any good. |
| 3 | C+ | Grades: its hospital quality star ratings and doctor-finder listings Rigorous hospital data next to doctor pages where the top slots are paid ads. |
| 4 | C+ | Grades: its appointment-verified patient reviews Handy for booking, but you only see doctors who pay, and the top ones paid more. |
| 5 | C+ | Grades: its agency and firm rankings and 'Leaders Matrix' awards Verified client reviews are real, but sponsors can buy their way to the top of the list. |
| 6 | C | Grades: its peer-reviewed attorney rankings A 40-year peer-vote lawyer directory where inclusion is free, but the same listed attorneys are then sold $650-$775 badges and marketing to publicize it. |
| 7 | C | Grades: its crowd-sourced star ratings of local businesses The star you see is not the average you think, and ad spend buys the placement above it. |
| 8 | C | Grades: its peer-selected 'Super Lawyers' attorney lists Peer-reputation selection you cannot buy, wrapped in placements you can. |
| 9 | C | Grades: its 'top financial advisor' rankings and matching Useful free calculators and an SEC-data-driven advisor ranking, but its business is selling consumer leads to the very advisors it matches you with. |
| 10 | C | Grades: its lawyer directory and 1-10 peer ratings Free case law plus a lawyer directory where attorneys pay for top placement, sitting alongside a separate peer-only rating Justia says it does not sell. |
| 11 | C | U.S. News & World Report (Best Lawyers/Hospitals/Colleges) High Scoring Confidence Ratings & rankings Grades: its college, hospital, and law-firm rankings Influential rankings leaning on reputation surveys, with badge fees from the institutions on top. |
| 12 | C | Grades: its 'AV' attorney peer-review ratings A confidential peer-opinion lawyer rating, with prominence you can buy around it. |
| 13 | C | Grades: its verified patient reviews and 'Worth It' ratings A large, phone-verified library of real patient reviews for cosmetic procedures, but the same doctors it lists pay for leads, profiles, and "Spotlight" placement that, by RealSelf's own marketing partners, buys higher search ranking. |
| 14 | C- | Grades: its 1-10 'Avvo Rating' of attorneys A lawyer score built on resume data, with the top spots sold to advertisers. |
| 15 | C- | Grades: its 'best [pro] in [city]' lists A tidy 'best local pro' badge that its own contract says you can pay to wear. |
| 16 | C- | Grades: its star-average of user reviews on Business Profiles Free and everywhere, impossible to buy rank in, and swimming in fake reviews with an opaque order. |
| 17 | C- | Grades: its attorney listings and peer ratings A lawyer directory whose star ratings sit beside paid "Preferred Placement" sold to the very attorneys it lists, so high visibility can reflect ad spend as much as merit. |
| 18 | D+ | Grades: its 'Leaders Matrix' firm and software rankings Top of the list is a sponsored slot, plainly. |
| 19 | D+ | Grades: its lawyer directory listings A trusted 50-year DIY-legal publisher whose attorney "directory" is, by its own sales materials, an ad product where paying for a Premium listing makes a firm rank higher. |
| 20 | D+ | Grades: its doctor directory and patient ratings Trusted health publisher with a genuinely walled-off editorial side, but its "find a doctor" directory openly sells top placement, so the rankings aren't merit-based. |
| 21 | D+ | Grades: its A+ to F business letter grades and accreditation seal A trusted-looking letter grade that a 2010 ABC News 20/20 investigation showed a $425 payment could obtain, even for fabricated companies. |
| 22 | D+ | Grades: its local-B2B provider rankings and 'Recommendability Rating' Pay UpCity or you may not get listed at all; the 'Top 30' is a pay-to-play order. |
| 23 | D | Grades: its anonymous patient star ratings of doctors Anonymous, unverified doctor reviews, with placement and even takedowns once for sale. |
| 24 | D | Grades: its patient star ratings and doctor listings Anonymous, email-only doctor ratings, easy to pad, with paid top spots. |
| 25 | F | Grades: its lawyer directory listings The lawyers up top paid to be there; the order is advertising, not a ranking. |
These are the sites that review a financial advisor (and the rest of the professional services). Columns are the five rubric dimensions, scored 0-5, with each column's weight shown in its header (independence and evidence carry the most). See the full methodology.
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