Honest Policy Mission and Editorial Edicts 

Honest Policy Mission and Editorial Guidelines 

Buying insurance is complex and confusing. We are out to change that, with accurate information, pricing transparency, and a commitment to your privacy. 

Mission

Inspire richer lives and better business practices.

Ethics, our guidepost 

We exist to create value, for you and for our organization. We are committed to pursuing that value without compromising our ethics or your privacy. 

Under the umbrella of ethical business practices, we have five core values that guide our decision-making in our reports: honesty, expertise, accuracy, neutrality, and efficiency.

Honesty 

We are honest about how we make money -- and how it's relatively unique in the industry. We earn commissions on new and renewed policies that you obtain with our tools. Unlike other quoting services, we only share your personal information with one provider, and only after you have selected that provider as your best option. 

Other rate comparison tools sell your information to multiple providers, a practice we abhor. Those providers follow up quickly and fiercely with emails and sales calls, even if you've already purchased a policy. 

If we cannot directly share commission revenue with a given partner, we may make money via referrals. We also may make money from display ads, but we will never let it affect our content or analysis.

We are honest in our content. We strive to surface the details, especially the ugly ones, that help you make better financial decisions. We happily write about where insurance falls short, when you don't need coverage, and how to avoid bad insurance surprises. We will tell you when a provider has a poor claims record or terrible user reviews. 

Revealing those issues supports our mission in two ways. It helps you take charge of your finances and encourages the entire industry to do better. 

Expertise 

Our leaders, writers, and editors are experts in their fields. Where we gather third-party information, we disclose the source of the information through linked citations. We only accept reputable websites and recognized experts as information sources. 

Our preferred sources include the Insurance Information Institute (III), National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and state departments of insurance. 

Accuracy 

To earn and keep your trust, we know the information we provide must be accurate. We are committed to presenting clear, correct, and current data and analyses. To that end, every piece of content we publish is independently reviewed and fact checked. 

We also review already published content periodically to ensure it remains current and factual. When we identify issues, we update the content and disclose what information we changed, and when. 

Despite our rigorous processes, we can and do make mistakes. For that reason, we gladly accept your feedback on our content. If it's incorrect, unclear, short-sighted, or lacking for any reason, we want you to tell us. We can be reached at support@honestpolicy.com

Neutrality 

In an industry that spends high dollars on commission, it's common for "information providers" to push you into the highest-commission products. We do not and will not, ever. 

Our writers operate independently of commercial concerns. Financial publishers commonly pay incentives to writers when people engage with their content or sign up for an account after reading an article. We prohibit that practice. We won't risk introducing bias into our content. 

We exist to help you make better decisions for you -- not decisions that benefit us. We can only fulfill that charter by remaining neutral. We have no preferred partners that receive special treatment in our content. 

We provide information and resources, and you make the decisions -- without influence.

Efficiency 

Standard lead generation practices in the financial industry are wasteful. You may have experienced this. You complete a lengthy form to compare insurance premiums or loan rates. Shortly after you hit submit, the emails and telephone messages come rolling in. There might be five or 10 sales representatives at one time trying to earn your business.  

Those sales reps don't know where you are in your decision-making. You might have signed a contract already or decided not to buy the product at all. Still, they are wasting their energy and yours trying to close the deal.

Our approach eliminates those wasted sales efforts. It's our vision that streamlining this process for providers could ultimately push costs and premiums lower. More immediately, our approach spares you the annoyance of unwanted emails and phone calls. The only provider to receive your personal information will be the one you choose as your insurance company or agent. 

By the same token, insurance companies spend vast amounts on advertising, a cost which can be greatly reduced with a place to compare insurers on a level playing field.

See our privacy and security policy to learn more about how we protect your information.

Fighting economic waste for lower rates long-term 

We strive to improve your experience and outcomes when shopping for financial products. To do that, we fight against less desirable practices common to insurance, such as: 

• Misleading messaging and important fine print tucked away in lengthy policy paperwork that no one reads. 

• Lack of pricing transparency. 

• Too much money spent on advertising and lead generation, including spam emails and telephone calls that consume your time and attention.

• Multiple lengthy quote forms that promise rate comparisons, but don't deliver the best rates. 

• Lack of visibility into providers' customer service and claims performance. This makes insurance one of few products that may not define itself as good or bad until years later when you make a claim. 

We stand against these practices that waste money and time. Here's how: 

• We provide one place for you to track and compare all insurers, where you can also learn the nuances of insurance. The end-goal is to empower you to understand clearly which financial product is best for your situation. 

• Our insurance profiles provide easy comparisons on premiums and providers' track records in claims and customer service. 

• We share your personal information once, and only with the company you select as your provider. You get to compare rates and research providers, without welcoming a flood of emails and sales calls. 

• We provide an insurance wallet, where you can store your policy details. 

• We highlight the fine print in our Learning Center. Our content doesn't skim over the top of a subject -- we dive into the details. 

Editorial process 

We adhere to the Social of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. These standards align well with our core values; key tenants include reporting the truth, treating people with respect, acting independently, and being transparent, always. 

Only experts write our content. We require our experts to cite all third-party information in every article and guide. Additionally, each piece of content is reviewed and fact-checked by an in-house editor. 

Sources and citations 

We only source information from reputable websites and industry experts. Where we use third-party information from online sources in our content, we cite it in an endnote, using APA style. When we use quotes or other information from an industry expert, we will let you know who the expert is, what his or her qualifications are, and when we collected the information. 

Corrections and updates 

When we find information that requires clarification or updating, we make the change as soon as possible. We also disclose when, how, and why we refreshed the content.