Editorial Standards

How we write

Every substantive factual claim on this site is sourced inline to a primary source: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Reserve / FRED, Federal Register, or the text of a state statute. We do not cite other blogs or aggregator sites as sourcing for factual claims.

Who reviews our content

We use a two-tier review system. Plain-language restatements of an identifiable primary source (an IRS notice's own stated purpose, a statute's plain text) are self-verified by our editorial lead directly against the cited source. Content involving real dollar-amount math (calculators), court-procedure deadlines, tax consequences, or explicit recommendations requires sign-off from a retained, credentialed reviewer before publication.

We are not licensed attorneys, CPAs, or financial counselors, and nothing on this site is individualized legal or financial advice. Where we cite a credentialed reviewer, that person's license or accreditation is independently verifiable through their state bar or accreditation registry, linked from their author page.

Our relationship to advertisers

Some pages on this site (marked with a persistent advertiser disclosure banner) contain links to debt-relief companies who compensate us if a reader enrolls in their services. Compensation never influences the underlying facts we report or the methodology behind any comparison or ranking content. Reference content (glossary, debt-type primers, state hubs, crisis-stage explainers, our CFPB data tools) carries no advertiser relationship and no persistent disclosure chrome, because none of it is monetized.

Corrections

If you believe something on this site is inaccurate or out of date, tell us and we'll investigate against the primary source. Verified corrections are logged below with the date and a plain description of what changed.