How the Creator Index works

The Creator Index scores US financial advisors on how well their public LinkedIn presence is set up to win clients. Each month, the 100 highest scores make The Creator 100.

Who is scored

• CFP® professionals based in the United States
• who own, founded or are a principal of their firm
• at a firm of 2 to 50 people.

To appear on the list, an advisor also needs at least four original posts in the last 90 days, and their CFP® certification is checked by hand in CFP Board’s public lookup. We find advisors through business contact databases and public registries, such as the SEC’s data on registered investment advisers.

What is measured

Public LinkedIn activity only, across four areas that add up to 100 points:

• Attract

  35 points

  How often they post, and how much response their posts get compared with people of a similar following.

• Capture

  25 points

  Whether posts tell readers what to do next, whether the Featured section offers something, and whether the profile links to a website or booking page.

• Convert

  25 points

  Whether the headline says who they help and with what, whether the About section is written about the client, and whether the profile is complete.

• Own

  15 points

  Whether they have channels of their own: a newsletter, a podcast, a YouTube channel or a booking site.

Weights are published per area, not per item, so a score cannot be gamed to the decimal.

How the score is calculated

• We look at the 90 days before each month’s rating.
• Counts, such as posts per week and the response to each post, are calculated directly. Response is compared within follower bands (under 1,000, 1,000 to 5,000, 5,000 to 20,000, and over 20,000), so a smaller account is not marked down for its size.
• Judgment items, such as whether a headline says who the advisor helps, are scored by an AI model against a fixed, written rubric. The rubric is versioned and never changes within a month. Every judgment is stored with its reasoning, so we can explain any score line by line.
• The Creator Score is a percentile. A score of 80 means a higher score than 80% of the advisors scored that month. Scores are recalculated every month, which keeps lists comparable over time.
• Unusually high engagement is flagged and checked by a person before anyone is listed.
• A profile we cannot read, for example because it is private, is left out that month. It is never scored as zero.

What is never measured

Assets under management, investment performance, number of clients, client results, fees, or the quality of anyone’s advice. The Creator Index measures marketing activity. It is not a recommendation of any advisor.

Each month

A new list publishes every month. Once published, a month’s list is not edited, except to remove someone at their request or to correct a mistake.

Sharing your ranking

If you are on the list, your profile page and share image already carry the disclosure a compliance team will ask for: the rating date, the period it covers, who produced it, and that no one paid to be rated.

Who produces it

The Creator Index is produced by Creator (getcreator.io), which helps financial advisors win clients through LinkedIn. No one pays to be included or to rank higher.

Some advisors on the list may be clients of Creator. They are scored by the same method as everyone else, and their own profile page says that they are a client.

Removal and corrections

To be removed, or to fix something about you, use the removal and correction form. We handle every request within 30 days. Once removed, you are not added back.

CFP Board

Not affiliated with or endorsed by CFP Board. The CFP® marks belong to CFP Board and are used here only to describe people’s credentials.