Editorial standards
Finbrief publishes financial content that people use to make real decisions with real money. The standards on this page describe how we research, write, review, and update every article so you can judge whether to trust what we say.
Our commitment to accuracy
Financial information that's out of date or wrong can cost readers money. Every article on Finbrief is:
- Built on primary sources — IRS publications, SEC filings, FDIC data, Federal Reserve releases, ECB statistics, and official company disclosures. We do not rely on aggregator blogs as a source of fact.
- Dated.Every article shows a “Last updated” date in the header. Tax, contribution, and rate figures cite the specific IRS news release or revenue procedure they come from.
- Honest about uncertainty. Where a figure is a projection, an estimate, or has not yet been officially released, we say so in the article.
Our review process
Before an article goes live, it goes through three checks performed by the Finbrief Editorial Team:
- Source check. Every number, date, and statutory rule in the article is matched against a primary source linked from our internal source register.
- Clarity check. Does the article actually answer the question a reader is asking? Are jargon terms defined the first time they appear? Could a reader without a finance background follow the recommendation?
- Affiliate-independence check.If the article recommends a product, we confirm the ranking reflects the product's actual fit for the use case — not the size of the affiliate payout. We routinely rank lower-paying partners above higher-paying ones when the product is the better fit.
How we fact-check
Our fact-checking process is built on a small number of strict rules:
- Two-source rule for current rates.APYs, credit-card sign-up bonuses, and similar quickly-changing figures are verified against the institution's own website plus one third-party tracker before we publish or refresh.
- IRS-direct for tax figures. Contribution limits, brackets, standard deductions, and phase-outs are quoted directly from the relevant IRS news release or revenue procedure. The release number appears in the article.
- SEC and FINRA filings for investment products.Fund expense ratios, composition, and historical returns are pulled from the fund's own prospectus or annual report, not third-party scrapers.
- No anonymous claims.We do not publish “experts say” or “studies show” without a linked source you can verify yourself.
Update cadence
Different content has different freshness needs. Our refresh schedule:
- HYSA roundups — monthly
- Credit card terms and bonuses — monthly
- Brokerage and robo-advisor reviews — quarterly
- Tax-year content — annually after the IRS publishes inflation adjustments (typically October–November)
- Insurance and evergreen explainers — at least once a year
Corrections policy
If we publish something inaccurate, we fix it, update the “Last updated” date, and — for material errors that could affect a reader's decision — add a visible correction note at the top of the article describing what was wrong and when it was fixed.
Editorial independence
Finbrief earns affiliate commissions when readers open accounts or apply for products through links on the site. We disclose that on every monetized page, and the full disclosure is in our affiliate disclosure. Editorial decisions — what we cover, how we rank products, what we recommend — are made independently of those relationships.
Contact
Spot an error, have a source we should be citing, or want to flag content that needs an update? Reach the editorial team at editorial@finbrief.space. We read every message and respond within five business days.