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For the fourth year, we’re pleased to present the winners of our annual Readers’ Choice Awards. In a survey we conducted on Kiplinger.com in January and February, more than 4,200 readers rated the financial products and services they use in 13 categories, from credit cards and banks to brokers, wealth managers and annuity providers. The results here offer valuable insight into the everyday experiences that Kiplinger readers have with their financial providers.
Respondents made their judgments on such criteria as their interactions with customer service, the likelihood they would recommend the product or service to others, and their overall satisfaction with it. They also had the option to leave comments about their providers, and we have shared some of them here (remarks may be lightly edited for length and clarity).
For each category, we’ve listed an overall winner that earned the highest total score as well as other providers that earned above-average ratings for the various criteria that readers assessed. Our thanks to all of you who participated in the survey.
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Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards 2026: Wealth Managers
A wealth manager takes a holistic look at your financial health, from investment strategies to debt management and beyond. We asked readers to rate their wealth-management firm based on five criteria: the quality of financial advice they receive, the trustworthiness of the advisors, the quality of retirement planning services, how likely they would be to recommend the firm to others and their overall satisfaction with the wealth manager.
OVERALL WINNER: UBS Wealth Management
Outstanding for:
- Quality of advice
- Trustworthy advisers
- Retirement planning services
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
UBS earned high marks from readers across all the criteria they rated, with one reader complimenting its “excellent service and advice.” The firm helps its clients develop a personalized and comprehensive wealth management plan to hit each one of their near- and long-term financial goals.
This starts by addressing five key questions that get to the root of what your wealth means to you: What do you want to accomplish in your life? What do you want your legacy to be? How do you plan to achieve your life’s vision? Who are the people that matter most to you? What are your main concerns?
UBS has also focused on building out its digital tools so that clients can review accounts, access cash, find financial statements and documents, and more in one convenient online portal.
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Outstanding for:
- Quality of advice
- Trustworthy advisers
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
Morgan Stanley offers both traditional, in-person advisory service and virtual consultations. Whichever way you prefer to work with your advisor, the team at Morgan Stanley can help you put together a personalized plan in areas such as retirement and college savings, tax efficiency, generational wealth and philanthropy.
Raymond James
Outstanding for:
- Quality of advice
- Trustworthy advisers
- Overall satisfaction
Raymond James ranked just behind UBS for quality of advice and trustworthiness. The full-service financial firm, which has about 8,900 advisers and $1.8 trillion in client assets, helps clients grow their wealth, plan for retirement, manage their estate and more.
Fidelity Wealth Management
Outstanding for:
- Retirement planning services
- Most recommended
Fidelity Wealth Management earned high praise from readers, whose comments included that the firm is “easy to work with” and that “their online retirement planning tool is brilliant.”
One respondent even reported switching to Fidelity because it won the Kiplinger Readers’ Choice award for the best wealth manager overall last year. The reader says that since switching, they “have never been happier with a provider. The difference is astounding.”
Vanguard Personal Advisor Services
Outstanding for:
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
Along with its self-directed investing options, Vanguard offers multiple tiers of advisory services, including Personal Advisor Select, which includes access to a dedicated certified financial planner, and Personal Advisor Wealth Management, which caters to high-net-worth investors and includes advanced wealth solutions. One survey respondent raved about Vanguard’s “low cost and damn good service.”
Bank of America/Merrill Wealth Management Services
Outstanding for:
The wealth management services from Bank of America and Merrill have repeatedly won accolades in our awards, earning praise for responsive and dedicated advisors. “They are a highly trusted partner and meet with us quarterly,” one reader says. “They are always available to us to answer questions or discuss strategy.”
Fisher Investments
Outstanding for:
- Retirement planning services
Fisher Investments is a “great company to work with,” says a survey respondent. The wealth management firm earned high marks for its retirement planning services in particular, with another reader noting that the firm helped ensure they were “on a path that would provide peace of mind in my retirement years.” Fisher lists estate and tax planning as well as strategizing to maximize Social Security benefits among its comprehensive planning services.
Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards Categories
How Readers Chose the Winners
Kiplinger readers were invited to take the Readers’ Choice Awards survey on Kiplinger.com between January 22 and February 19, 2026. The survey asked respondents to choose the financial product or service that they most frequently use in 13 categories: brokerage firms, wealth managers, IRA providers, cash-back credit cards, travel rewards credit cards, airline credit card rewards programs, national banks, internet banks, annuity providers, homeowners insurers, auto insurers, tax software and peer-to-peer payment services.
We asked readers to rate each provider they selected on a scale of one to 10 based on a few criteria. In many categories, readers rated the strength of customer service, how likely they would be to recommend the product or service to others, and how satisfied they are overall with the provider. In some categories, we included more nuanced criteria. With wealth management firms, we asked respondents to rate the trustworthiness of a firm’s advisers and the quality of its financial advice and retirement-planning services. For IRA providers, respondents assessed the mix of investment choices available to them. For peer-to-peer payment apps and tax software, respondents evaluated ease of use, and for auto and home insurance companies, readers judged the competitiveness of rates and strength of the claims experience.
We calculated an average (mean) score for each criterion with each provider. We also calculated an overall mean score for all providers for each criterion we asked readers to judge. We compared individual provider mean scores with the overall mean, and the three highest-scoring providers that had a score above the overall mean won an “outstanding” accolade; in cases of a tie, more than three providers are named, and if fewer than three qualifying providers achieved an above-average score, only those providers are named “outstanding.” In each category, providers are generally listed in descending order by the number of criteria for which they received the “outstanding” designation — so a product or company that is deemed “outstanding” in three areas, for example, is listed before a provider with one or two “outstanding” awards.
To choose an overall winner in each category, we added together the mean scores for each criterion rated for each product or service. The provider with the highest total score in each category took the prize for overall winner.
