How we rank financial advisors
Re-scored weekly-1 firms scored0 ranked lists0 paid placements in any ranking
Every firm gets one RFA Score from 0 to 100, built from weighted public signals and calculated separately for each specialty and city. Ranks come from that score and nothing else. Sponsored placements never affect rank. The score describes public information about a firm; it is not investment advice and not a recommendation to hire anyone.
The RFA Score in one line
Each factor earns a share of its weight; the shares add up to a score out of 100.
- 30%Reputation
- 20%Registration
- 10%Review volume
- 5%Recency
- 15%Specialty focus
- 5%Proximity
- 10%Claimed profile
- 5%Partnered
A factor we could not measure for a business is left out, and the score is worked out over the factors we did measure. The exact formula is in Formulas at the bottom of this page.
The eight factors
What each factor measures, why it counts, and where the data comes from.
| Factor | Weight | How it’s measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reputation | 30% | The Google star rating, adjusted for how many reviews stand behind it. A firm with no Google reviews scores zero here. | Google rating and review count (client experience, not investment results) |
| Registration | 20% | Not measured yet. When loaded: an active registration with the SEC or a state securities regulator (investment advisers), FINRA (broker-dealers and their representatives) or a Canadian provincial securities regulator, matched to the firm. | Planned: SEC IAPD / Form ADV data, FINRA BrokerCheck, CSA National Registration Search |
| Review volume | 10% | Number of Google reviews, compared with the most-reviewed firm on the same list. Each extra review counts a little less than the one before. | Google review count |
| Recency | 5% | Share of the firm’s reviews posted in the last 12 months. | Review dates |
| Specialty focus | 15% | How clearly this is the firm’s specialty: its Google main category counts most, then a firm name that names the specialty, then an additional category. | Google main and additional categories, firm name |
| Proximity | 5% | A firm based in the city scores highest; one based elsewhere scores less the farther away it is, down to nothing at the specialty’s service radius. | Business coordinates |
| Claimed profile | 10% | Full points when the firm has claimed its RankedFinancialAdvisors profile. Claiming is free, and free and paid profiles earn the same points. | RankedFinancialAdvisors account records |
| Partnered | 5% | Full points when the firm links to RankedFinancialAdvisors from its own website with our free badge. We check the link periodically. | Badge check on the firm’s website |
30%Reputation
People look at the rating first, but a rating resting on a handful of reviews is noisy.
20%Registration
Registration is the legal minimum for giving investment advice or selling securities, and the public record shows any disciplinary history.
10%Review volume
Number of Google reviews, compared with the most-reviewed firm on the same list. Each extra review counts a little less than the one before, so one large firm cannot flatten everyone else.
5%Recency
Share of the firm’s reviews posted in the last 12 months. A strong rating from years ago says less about the team serving clients today.
15%Specialty focus
A specialist should outrank a firm that lists the specialty among many others.
5%Proximity
A firm based in the city scores highest; one based elsewhere scores less the farther away it is, down to nothing at the specialty’s radius. Many clients still want to meet in person, and a nearby office makes that easier.
10%Claimed profile
Full points when the firm has claimed its Ranked Financial Advisors profile. Claiming is free, and free and paid profiles earn the same points. A firm that keeps its profile current is easier to reach and to hold to account.
5%Partnered
Full points when the firm links to Ranked Financial Advisors from its own website with our free badge, which carries the rating date and our disclosures. We check the link periodically.
How the star rating is adjusted
A perfect score from 9 reviews should not beat a near-perfect score from a thousand.
A firm with few reviews is pulled toward the local average for its specialty. As its reviews grow, its own rating takes over. At 50 reviews, its rating and the average count equally.
Worked example, using an example average of C = 4.4: a 5.0 from 9 reviews ranks below a 4.8 from 1,049.
| Order | Business | Google rating | Reviews | Weight on own rating | Adjusted rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Business B | 4.8 | 1,049 | 95% | 4.78 |
| #2 | Business C | 4.6 | 140 | 74% | 4.55 |
| #3 | Business A | 5.0 | 9 | 15% | 4.49 |
Businesses A, B and C are illustrations, not real companies.
When data is missing
We never fill a gap with a guess.
A firm with no Google reviews scores zero on reputation, review volume and recency, so it can’t outrank reviewed firms on missing data. Claimed profile and partnered are always measured: no claim or badge yet means zero.
For any other factor, a missing input is left out rather than set to zero or to an average. The score is calculated over the factors we could measure, and each business shows its coverage: the measured weight out of 100.
In score bars a measured factor is solid. A factor we have not collected yet is hatched:
Example only: no review dates yet, so recency is hatched.
Who gets ranked
Some businesses are listed but not ranked; some are not listed at all.
- To be ranked for a specialty, a firm needs a confident specialty match (its Google category or its name names the specialty) and either 3+ Google reviews or a claimed profile.
- Everyone else who serves the city appears unranked in a compact “Also serving” table on the same page.
- Ties are broken by score, then weekly open hours, then profile completeness (website, photos, description and hours), then name.
| Rule | Effect | Firms affected |
|---|---|---|
| Weak specialty match (only a services tag names the specialty) | Listed in “Also serving”, not ranked. | — |
| Fewer than 3 reviews and not claimed | Listed in “Also serving”, not ranked. | — |
| Permanently closed | Removed from every list. | — |
| Sponsored or any paid status | Never read by the score; never changes a rank. | — |
Service areas and coverage
Many advisors meet clients across a region or by video, so a city list includes firms based nearby that serve it.
Each specialty has a service radius. A firm based inside the city gets full proximity points; one based elsewhere scores less the further away it is, reaching 0 at the radius. Every card says where the firm is based and how far that is.
| Specialty | Radius |
|---|---|
| Financial advisors | 25 mi (40 km) |
| Financial planners | 25 mi (40 km) |
| Wealth managers | 40 mi (64 km) |
| Retirement planners | 25 mi (40 km) |
| Investment advisors | 25 mi (40 km) |
| Stockbrokers | 25 mi (40 km) |
Where the data comes from
- Google Business data: star rating, review count, review dates, categories, opening hours, coordinates and listed attributes.
- Business-submitted data: firms that claim their profile can correct hours, specialties and contact details. Changes are checked before they count.
A weekly job rescores the cities that were scored longest ago first. Scores are stored, not computed when you load a page, so a firm’s number is the same on its profile and on every list it appears in. Each list shows the date it was last scored.
When a page shows a ranking
- A specialty × city list is published and indexed with 10 or more rankable firms. With 5–9 it is shown but kept out of search indexes; below 5 we point to the state list instead.
- We don’t publish a separate page when more than 70% of its top 10 matches its parent list; it becomes a section of the parent.
- The top 25 firms appear in full; the rest of the ranked list appears in a compact table on the same page.
- Every rank names its basis and date: the RFA Score, scored on a stated day.
What firms can and cannot pay for
Firms can pay for
- A Sponsored slot: a block labelled “Sponsored”, outside the ranked list, with at most 3 firms per page, rotated daily at an equal price
- Pro profile tools: photos, a website link and profile stats
Firms can never pay for
- A higher rank, on any list
- A change to their RFA Score or any factor in it
- Removal of a competitor, or of facts they dislike
Claiming a profile and adding our badge to your website are free. Free and paid listings earn exactly the same points for a claimed profile (10%) and for being partnered (5%); paying for Sponsored or Pro adds nothing to the score.
Each Sponsored card also shows that firm’s actual rank, so readers see where it really places. Sponsored firms are left out of the ranked list’s structured data.
Found a wrong fact? Our editorial policy explains how to request a correction and how fast we act.
Formulas
The exact calculations behind the factors above, for anyone who wants to check our work.
| Factor | Weight | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| Reputation | 30% | adj = v/(v+m)·R + m/(v+m)·C, with m = 50 and C = the review-weighted mean rating for the specialty in that city (a Bayesian average). Part = adj / 5. 0 when the firm has no Google reviews. |
| Registration | 20% | Left out (not measured) until a credential source is loaded. |
| Review volume | 10% | log10(v + 1) / log10(V + 1), where V = the most Google reviews on the same ranked list. 0 when the firm has no Google reviews. |
| Recency | 5% | Reviews in the last 12 months / all reviews. Left out until review dates are collected; 0 when the firm has no Google reviews. |
| Specialty focus | 15% | Google main category 1.0, firm name names the specialty 0.7, additional category only 0.5; the highest that applies. |
| Proximity | 5% | 1.0 when based in the city, falling in a straight line to 0 at the specialty’s service radius. |
| Claimed profile | 10% | 1 when the profile is claimed (free or paid), else 0. |
| Partnered | 5% | 1 when our badge is verified on the firm’s own website (or set by an admin after a manual check), else 0. |
- No Google reviews: reputation, review volume and recency are 0, not left out.
- Ranking needs specialty focus of 0.5 or more and 3+ Google reviews or a claimed profile.