JUDGES
DAVID BACH, AUTHOR OF THE LATTE FACTOR JEAN CHATZKY, CEO OF HERMONEY AND AUTHOR OF WOMEN WITH MONEY
BLAIR DuQUESNAY, CFA, CFP, RITHOLTZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT KRISTEN EURETIG, CFP, BROOKLYN PLANS
BRAD KLONTZ, CFP, PSYD, FOUNDER OF THE FINANCIAL PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE AND AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE IN FINANCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY AT CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY’S HEIDER COLLEGE OF BUSINESS TONYA RAPLEY, MILLENNIAL MONEY EXPERT
AND CREATOR OF MYFABFINANCE.COM KELSEY SHEEHY, NERDWALLET EDITOR ANDREA WOROCH, CONSUMER FINANCE EXPERT
METHODOLOGY
TO CREATE THE SMART MONEY
AWARDS, WE COMPILED
A LIST OF FINANCIAL COMPANIES
OFFERING PRODUCTS THAT
DEBUTED (OR RELEASED NEW
FEATURES) BETWEEN JANUARY 2018
AND JUNE 2019. A PANEL OF EIGHT
JUDGES RATED THE LIST ON
INNOVATIVENESS AND RELEVANCE
TO REAL SIMPLE READERS TO
REACH A LIST OF 20. THE TOP
WINNERS SCORED HIGHEST AMONG
THESE RATINGS. ALL DESCRIPTIONS
AND SERVICES AS OF JULY 30, 2019.
FOR THE FULL LIST, GO TO
REALSIMPLE.COM/MONEYAWARDS.
WINNER: Fabric’s
document storage
For getting important financial
information all in one place
WHAT IT IS: This online stor-
age platform gives families
easy, super-secure access to
financial documents, like life
insurance policies, investment
portfolios, and banking and
credit card information.WHY WE LOVE IT: Fabric, an
online insurance company
and will provider (meetfabric
.com), found that more than
40 percent of parents are
likely to struggle to locateSERVICES
RUNNER-UP: Policygenius
For cutting through the
insurance confusion
“Dealing with insurance bro-
kers often feels like a high-
pressure sales pitch followed
by a flood of follow-up calls
and emails pushing you to
buy coverage,” says consumer
finance expert Andrea Woroch.
Not so with Policygenius,
which lets you compare quotes
from top brokers, including
for lesser-known types of
policies (like vision insurance
and identity theft insurance).
If you buy through the site, the
commission-free advisers will
help you handle straggler tasks,
like canceling your old policies.WINNER: Quicken Loans
For helping mortgages align
with modern homeownership
WHAT IT IS: One of the nation’s
largest mortgage lenders is
embracing the gig economy.
Quicken Loans now takes into
account rental income from
Airbnb and Vrbo when home-
owners refinance.WHY WE LOVE IT: Refinancing
can snag you a lower interest
rate and reduce your monthly
mortgage payments. But until
recently, short-term rentals
weren’t eligible to use in the
underwriting process. In 2018,
Quicken Loans and Airbnb
began sharing real-time, con-
firmed income data, which
allows rental income to be
considered when calculating
the debt-to-income ratio.
Earlier this year, Quicken
Loans struck a similar part-
nership with rental-listing
giant Vrbo. “Getting ‘credit’ for
your income stream is exactly
what people who host short-
term rentals need. Genius,”
says David Bach, author of
The Automatic Millionaire.MORTGAGE
RUNNER-UP:
Bank of America’s
Digital Mortgage
For dragging mortgages
out of the Stone Age
Mortgage start-ups have been
jockeying to pull the paper-
bound industry into the digital
age, but many lack the size to
service loans long-term. Bank
of America is one of the biggest
brands to offer a digital end-
to-end mortgage experience,
taking home buyers from pre-
qualification to preapproval to
loan application when a pur-
chase contract is in place—all
via the mobile app and web-
site. “Buying a home can be
overwhelming and tedious,”
points out millennial money
expert Tonya Rapley. “This is
a step forward.”important documents. There
are other cloud-based storage
platforms around, but we’re
fans of Fabric’s intuitive inter-
face and the way it’s so easy
to link info with a loved one.
Plus, financial docs are more
secure when stored separately
from frequently shared photos
and work materials.