BrightScope decided to launch a Question & Answer feature to help investors easily find answers to financial questions and help advisors showcase their expertise by answering those questions.
To get started, follow these simple steps.
Yes, when you ask a question or post and answer/comment, you will be prompted to register on the site.
Yes, anyone can ask questions.
At present, only our advisor clients can answer questions posted on the site. This is to ensure high quality answers covering a broad range of financial topics.
Advisors can earn points by answering questions, publishing financial articles, posting comments, receiving up-votes for their posts, and sharing posts on social media.
Contributor Levels are determined by the number of points a user earns relative to other users. For example, Level 10 Contributors are those users who are in the top 10% of point earners.
The report button is used to "flag" a posting for one of 8 reasons: spam, advertising, offensive abusive or inappropriate, content violates terms of use, misleading, someone is not being nice, not relevant/off-topic, or another reason.
BrightScope does not edit questions and answers posted, but reserves the right to remove inappropriate content.
Financial articles are authored by our advisor clients. Financial articles are an excellent way for advisors to showcase their expertise and share their insights on various topics with investors. To publish a financial article, login to your Advisor Dashboard and visit the Financial Articles section. Click "Compose" to publish a new article.
No, BrightScope does not edit financial articles posted, but reserves the right to remove inappropriate content.
A user's Contributor Level reflects their level of activity on the site.
Click the advisor's photo to visit their Advisor Pages profile. Once on the Advisor Pages profile, you may reference the contact information provided or use the Contact This Advisor button.
The Contact This Advisor button is a way for users to send a message to an advisor on the site. BrightScope filters the messages to ensure that the advisor does not receive spam. BrightScope will do its best to pass non-spam messages to the advisor and will include your contact information so that the advisor can reach out to you.
Yes, you can follow a question or a topic and receive an email notification whenever there is new activity.
This is a weekly email that highlights the top 5 questions with the most answers. These will include questions added in the past week.
Advisors may not be able to respond to even the best posts. This is not because they aren't interested but because they must adhere to strict communications guidelines. Despite various restrictions, we'll do our best to create a valuable and useful space for you.
BrightScope is the only 401k analytics firm that is truly independent and does not accept compensation in the form of revenue sharing from mutual fund companies or plan providers. BrightScope is aligned with plan sponsors and seeks to avoid conflicts that will jeopardize its ability to give its clients unbiased advice. To learn more about our commitment to independence, please read our Research and Analytics Objectivity Policy.
BrightScope is an idea brought to life by two investment managers, and a long term HP engineering veteran. For years, the three had discussed the challenges human resource executives faced with 401k plan evaluation and benchmarking because benefits data has been controlled by a small group of companies that are not incentivized or governed by the same fiduciary standards that a plan sponsor must honor. Unfortunately, HR managers and senior executives had little they could do about it. Together the three founders of BrightScope set out to achieve a lofty dream: to enhance and protect the retirement security, health, and welfare of America's workforce by increasing the transparency and efficiency of the company benefits market. In 2007 they formed BrightScope and began to build the BrightScope RatingTM Engine. They spent the first year analyzing 401k filings and industry data and running 401k performance simulation tests. In 2008, the BrightScope team began constructing a user-friendly website and distribution platform. BrightScope.com publicly launched at the end of January 2009.
