Lisa Gerstner
About the Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards 2025
The Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards aim to recognize and celebrate the best products and services in the personal finance arena. We asked you, our Kiplinger community, to help us name the products and services you think have delivered excellent value in the past year.
The survey results, which we’re sharing here in our second annual Readers’ Choice Awards, offer valuable insight into which providers shine when it comes to your everyday interactions and experiences with them. Our Awards recognize excellence in everything from credit cards, banks and brokers to insurers, tax software and financial apps. For each category, we’ve listed an overall winner that earned the highest score. We’ve also highlighted other products and services that earned above-average scores for various criteria we asked readers to assess.
By voting, our community has helped us form our guide to the very best financial products. These are the products and companies that you think stand out from the crowd.
Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards: Wealth Managers
These firms take a holistic look at your finances and offer advice tailored to you. Beyond assisting with investment strategies, advisers may help you manage credit and debt, savings, estate and tax planning, and more. Readers rated wealth managers based on the quality of financial advice they received, the trustworthiness of the advisers, how likely they would be to recommend the firm to others and their overall satisfaction with the wealth manager.
OVERALL WINNER: Fidelity Wealth Management
Outstanding for:
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- Quality of advice
- Trustworthy advisers
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
Fidelity Wealth Management earned high ratings in all of the surveyed categories. Readers like that Fidelity’s dedicated advisers are easy to reach and offer individualized attention.
“I have a wonderful local wealth manager at a nearby Fidelity office. Very pleased with him,” says one satisfied reader. Says another, “I’ve used Fidelity Wealth Management since I retired. They’re very responsive have done well managing my portfolio.”
The wealth-management offerings, which include financial planning, investment management and tax-smart strategizing, come in tiers. Fidelity Wealth Management, which requires minimum investments of $500,000 (excluding 401(k)plans) in eligible Fidelity accounts, charges a fee of 0.2% to 1.5% of the assets under management.
Fidelity Private Wealth Management clients must have a minimum investment of $2 million with Fidelity and $10 million or more in total investable assets. Fees range from 0.2% to 1.04%, and clients get access to a dedicated team of financial professionals.
Ameriprise Financial
Outstanding for:
- Quality of advice
- Trustworthy advisers
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
Readers who take advantage of Ameriprise’s services noted many positive, longtime relationships with their advisers. One survey respondent assessed the firm’s financial planning services as “truly objective” with “sound recommendations” that are guided by the client’s best interests in mind.
Ameriprise serves more than 3.5 million clients with a network of more than 10,000 financial advisers. Advisers offer personalized financial guidance tailored to clients’ goals, whether they pertain to retirement, education, a major purchase or estate planning. Planning services also include cash-flow management, tax strategies, insurance and even small-business planning.
Bank of America/Merrill Wealth Management Services
Outstanding for:
- Quality of advice
- Trustworthy advisers
- Overall satisfaction
The wealth services from Bank of America and Merrill, the bank’s brokerage unit, rose in the ranks this year, earning high marks for most of the surveyed criteria. Readers raved about the quality of service. “I sleep well at night knowing my adviser has our back. She keeps in touch just the right amount of time,” says one reader.
One option for customers is Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, through which you work with a dedicated adviser. Or, with Merrill Guided Investing, investment pros build and manage your portfolio, and you have the option to work with an adviser. Bank of America also offers wealth management for high-net-worth clients through its private bank.
UBS
Outstanding for:
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
UBS Wealth Management provides advice and investment strategies tailored to help you reach your financial goals as well as custom asset allocation and portfolio management. UBS helps you organize your finances with three strategies: wealth for now (liquidity), wealth for later (longevity) and wealth for others (legacy).
Readers had many kind words to say about their UBS advisers, commenting that their advice is both “thoughtful” and guided with clients’ “best interests at heart.”
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Outstanding for:
- Trustworthy advisers
In addition to virtual consultations, Morgan Stanley provides traditional in-person advisory services. These services are typically available to clients who maintain at least $500,000 in investable assets.
Whether you choose virtual or in-person services, your adviser will customize a plan for you in such areas as retirement and college savings, tax efficiency, generational wealth, and philanthropy.
Kiplinger Readers' Choice Awards Categories
- Readers' Choice Full-Service Brokers
- Readers' Choice Cash-Back Credit Cards
- Readers' Choice Travel Rewards Credit Cards
- Readers' Choice Airline Credit Card Rewards Programs
- Readers' Choice Hotel Credit Card Rewards Programs
- Readers' Choice National Banks
- Readers' Choice Internet Banks
- Readers' Choice Auto Insurance Companies
- Readers' Choice Homeowners Insurance Companies
- Readers' Choice Annuity Providers
- Readers' Choice Tax Software
- Readers' Choice Peer-to-Peer Payment Services
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