Methodology: How Clear Money Guide Computes Its Numbers

Updated July 23, 2026. Quick answer: Every number Clear Money Guide publishes is either a named public-source figure, a transparent calculator output you can reproduce yourself, or a clearly labeled educational range — and our statistical pages are independently recomputed before publication. This page documents exactly how, so you can check our work before you cite it or act on it.

Where our numbers come from

Three kinds of numbers appear on this site, each handled differently:

• Public-source statistics — such as the firm counts and assets on our US advisor statistics pages — are computed from named official sources: the SEC’s public Investment Adviser roster and Form ADV filings (regulatory AUM means Form ADV Item 5.F.(2)(c), total regulatory assets under management). Each statistical page names its source file and report date.
• Statutory figures — such as the Social Security provisional-income thresholds in our provisional income calculator — come from the governing law and agency publications (IRS, SSA, Medicare), linked on the page that uses them.
• Educational fee ranges — such as “about 0.50%–1.00%+ of assets per year” — are commonly quoted figures drawn from public advisory disclosures and industry pricing conventions. They are always labeled as educational ranges, never presented as quotes, and never attributed to sources that don’t exist.

How our calculators work

Every calculator on this site runs entirely in your browser with plain, inspectable arithmetic — your inputs are never sent to us or stored. The formulas are the obvious ones, stated on each page: an AUM fee is balance × rate; provisional income is AGI excluding Social Security + tax-exempt interest + half of benefits; break-even comparisons divide one written quote by another. If you re-do any calculation by hand and get a different answer, that’s a bug — tell us via the corrections page.

Independent verification

Statistical pages go through a two-pass process before publication: one system computes the figures from the source data, and a second, independent pass recomputes them from scratch and compares every headline number. Publication is blocked until the two passes agree. This process has caught real errors before they went live — including a $12.9 trillion column-definition mistake in our advisor-statistics dataset that was corrected before publication precisely because the second pass refused to confirm the first.

Freshness and corrections

Pages carry two stamps: an “Updated” date for any meaningful change, and a “materially reviewed” date in the methodology note for full-content reviews. Statistical pages are refreshed when their underlying source publishes a new edition (the SEC roster, for example, is re-computed from a newer report date and the change is noted). Errors are fixed under the policy on our corrections page.

What we don’t do

• No advisor directories, rankings, or reviews — we don’t rate or endorse specific firms, and no firm can pay for placement.
• No individualized advice — everything here is educational; fee examples are ranges, not quotes, and nothing substitutes for personalized financial, tax, or legal counsel.
• No hidden monetization — advisor-match links are marked sponsored, disclosed on the affiliate disclosure page, and partner compensation does not change calculator math, fee examples, or editorial standards.

Related: Editorial Policy | Corrections | Affiliate Disclosure | Disclaimer

Cite us

Everything on this site may be cited with attribution and a link. For statistics, please include the figure’s report date (shown on each page) so your readers know which edition you used. This page was materially reviewed on July 23, 2026.