Guide to our Proprietary Broker Review System
Last updated: March 2026
When choosing a broker, investors face a myriad of considerations, from safety measures to fee structures and beyond. Bankeronwheels.com takes a unique approach to broker comparison, designed with the discerning investor in mind. Here’s how we guide you through making an informed decision:
We assess brokers based on typical requirements of our readers, that prioritise long-term compounding, safety and low fees. We penalise brokers that have riskier business models, not enough capital or/and focus on niches such as overpriced speculative instruments.
👉 Read how we define wise investors →Investors may have different priorities given the size of their portfolios and overall goals. For beginners, a low-cost Tier 2 broker may be appealing, while an investor with significant assets may prioritise safety and a broker within a banking group or Tier 1 category.
👉 Read how we categorise brokers →We offer safety considerations to help users make informed decisions. But, we have no safety sub-score. The omission of safety scores is deliberate, as assessing the safety of a broker involves a complex array of factors – often requiring access to private information – including financials and operational data. Instead, our goal is to highlight some safety and transparency considerations that typically go into Probability of Default / Loss Given Default estimations.
👉 Read how we approach safety →Each broker is given two assessments – An absolute score and a relative score called Category Ranking:
1. Absolute Score has three components:
2. Category Ranking – is a relative rating comparing each broker within their own category. The ranking components have the same inputs as the Absolute score, but the weights change. For example, investors choosing Tier 2 Brokers typically invests smaller amounts and prioritise fees and platform/tax handling over company track record as they are fully covered by National Investment Protection Schemes.
Separately each review has a section at the bottom related to local considerations. Presence of tax wrappers for European countries, tax reporting features, standard tax reporting for compliance and ease of tax filings for all investors, as well as customised reports adapted to country-specific tax laws.
Our review process combines quantitative data analysis with qualitative expert assessment across four stages:
Initially, we aggregate all publicly accessible data, sourced directly from brokers as well as a diverse array of third-party entities. To meticulously monitor the evolution of broker documentation and various other inputs over time, we maintain comprehensive archives of data snapshots.
In instances where public data proves insufficient, we proactively seek additional information by distributing detailed questionnaires to relevant entities.
Extending from operational staff to the upper echelons of broker management. These interactions are key in bridging informational gaps, ensuring a holistic understanding of each broker’s operations. If questionnaires and/or calls are not sufficient to address our key concerns, we will assume the worst case as scoring input.
Leveraging our proprietary evaluation framework, we assign scores to brokers, which are then benchmark against peers. This process is overlaid by our expert analysis, ensuring that our assessments are both comprehensive and insightful.
This graph shows you the importance of each subscore to our absolute Broker score. For example, 35% of the total score depends on Company (including Safety Considerations or Transparency). We may overlay it with a qualitative input based on our expert assessment. But, we also provide the subscores, so you can assess based on your own preferrences for certain areas.
Tax wrappers and country-considerations are included separately at the end of the broker review page.
All scores — both overall and subscores — are expressed on a 0–5 scale divided into four quality bands. The scale below shows the score-to-label mapping:
| Score Range | Label | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5 – 5.0 | Excellent | Top-tier in this category; among the very best available |
| 3.5 – 4.4 | Good | Above average; solid choice for most investors |
| 2.5 – 3.4 | Fair | Acceptable but with notable drawbacks |
| 0.0 – 2.4 | Lagger | Below average; significant weaknesses in this area |
We will not assess the broker’s probability of default or provide safety scores. However, we may rely on external metrics like ratings – if available – to estimate the implied risks, based on historical default for similar cohorts. We will also provide safety considerations, that may to some extent play a role in assessing the risks, including but not limited to:
European and UK Brokers tend to have complex fee structures, making them hard to compare. However, most of our readers have simple portfolios and typically buy & hold, which makes it possible to run illustrative scenarios and compare the overall cost in a savings phase of your life (prior retirement).
The Fee subscore quantifies the total cost of ownership over a 10-year period for a standardised investment scenario. Unlike the Company subscore, Fees are scored using a precise, formula-driven methodology.
The fee model accounts for all recurring costs that erode portfolio value over time:
| Fee Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Custody Fees | Annual charge for holding your assets (% of portfolio or flat fee, may be tiered) |
| Inactivity Fees | Charges for accounts with no trading activity over a period |
| Trading Commissions | Per-trade costs for buying/selling ETFs (flat, %, or tiered, with minimums) |
| FX Conversion Fees | Currency exchange costs when trading non-native-currency ETFs |
| Connectivity Fees | Exchange access charges for foreign market connections |
The fee score is determined using our proprietary formula that considers the total 10-year cost, FX conversion fees, and structural penalties. The model assigns a base score based on overall cost competitiveness, applies notch adjustments for FX fees (which compound significantly over time and disproportionately affect cross-border investors).
The final fee score is clamped between 0.0 and 5.0.
Try Our Broker Cost Comparison Calculator →The Platform subscore quantifies features and usability using our proprietary scoring model across 18 attributes. Each feature contributes positively or negatively based on its importance to long-term investors, and the total is clamped to a 0–5 range.
We evaluate four dimensions:
You can find those at the top of the review page.
We assess broker suitability based on the three typical investor profiles. For example, Bond Market or Mutual Fund Access could be important for Cyclists that want a more customised portfolio. For Bankers, US ETF access, Margin loans and derivatives could be beneficial to construct risk parity portfolios or access factor ETFs not available in the UCITS format.
Tax treatment varies significantly by jurisdiction and can materially affect net returns. We address country-specific factors separately from the universal score:
Does the broker provide tax reports compatible with your country’s requirements? Automated tax certificates reduce compliance burden significantly.
Some jurisdictions require specific formats (e.g., German Vorabpauschale, Austrian Meldefonds). We note which brokers support these natively.
Country-specific tax-advantaged accounts like UK ISAs and SIPPs, French PEA, or Swiss Pillar 3a. Availability of these wrappers can dramatically change the effective cost of investing.
After the quantitative scores are computed, our editorial team may apply a small manual adjustment to either the Absolute Score or the Category Ranking to capture factors that the formula cannot fully reflect.
Applied in 0.1 increments. Adjustments rarely exceed ±0.3.
The reason is recorded internally for audit and transparency. Examples: exceptional customer service, recent regulatory action, unique product innovation.
Final Score = max(0, min(5, Computed Score + Adjustment))
They are two different metrics. They use the same exact inputs. The only difference is the weight we assign to the sub-scores:
The Broker Score is an absolute score. With this score you can compare any broker across all categories. The criteria and weights are the same whether the broker is backed by a Bank, an independent Tier 1 or Tier 2 broker.
The Category Rank is a relative score. The idea is to compare ‘comparable’ brokers. For example, Interactive Brokers plays in a different league than Lightyear. Read here how we think about broker categories. Each category has a different weight of company, fee and platform subscore.
We have two assessments (but we only call one a ‘Score’), because investors needs are often very different. The inputs for both the Broker Score and the Category Ranking are the same, but the weights change. For example, investors choosing Tier 2 Brokers typically invest smaller amounts and prioritise fees and platform/tax handling over company track record as they are fully covered by National Investment Protection Schemes.
Investors with large portfolios typically exceed the Investment Protection Schemes and put a lot of emphasis on the long-term viability of the broker’s business and its track record. That’s why our absolute Broker Score includes a 35% weight to the ‘Company’.
New investors with smaller portfolios often choose fully-digital brokers and prioritise costs and platform functionality over company track record, as most of these brokers are start ups. National Protection Schemes often protect investors with small amounts, so bankruptcy is less of a risk, but cost reduction in an early phase is especially important due to compounding. In that case investors may look at relative category rankings. Investors may ultimately consider a transfer to a Tier 1 Broker once the account grows larger, for example to reduce counterparty risk if the broker remains unprofitable over the years. In our relative rankings, we heavily penalise brokers that don’t allow share transfers.
Tier 1 category ranking weights – are 35% / 35% / 30% for Company, Fees and Platform.
Tier 2 category ranking weights – are 15% / 50% / 35% for Company, Fees and Platform.
Banking Brokers category ranking weights – are 15% / 50% / 35% for Company, Fees and Platform.
No one can. We provide a company subscore to help users make informed decisions. Assessing the safety of a broker involves a complex array of factors – often requiring access to private information – including financials and operational data. But in our reviews we research relevant inputs that may play a role in the safety, so you can reduce risks based on those considerations. We also include information that is relevant based on our due diligence calls with brokers.
There are five categories:
1. Direct Brokers (backed by Banks)
2. Traditional Brokerage Arms of Banks
3. Tier 1 Brokers (non-Bank)
4. Tier 2 Brokers (non-Bank)
5. Tier 3 Brokers (non-Bank)
We have a guide explaining how we think about them.
We deliberately decrease the importance of certain aspects that are less relevant to the success of investors, such as availability of stock research or/and videos / educational materials. This is because (i) Brokers should focus on their job and do it well and (ii) Brokers very often don’t educate well given their incentives for you to trade often and obvious conflicts of interest. Promotion of certain markets that harm investors (e.g. CFDs) is also not an advantage.
We have a whole section dedicated to broker selection, including fee structures found in Europe and the UK, safety, taxes and platform features.
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If you’ve enjoyed our high-quality guides, you will love Europe’s best Wise Investing newsletter even more. Join tens of thousands of individual investors who trust us.
☕ Every Saturday morning with your coffee, enjoy FREE:
✅ Investing guides & tools
✅ Curated insights on investing strategies, ETFs, brokers, early retirement & lifestyle
✅ Exclusive articles crafted for wise investors like you
📩 Bonus: FREE Portfolio Checklist! Sign up today and receive a FREE 2-page checklist to:
🔒 We respect your privacy and never spam. Try it. Feel free to unsubscribe at any time.
