Methodology

Last Updated: May 2026 | Research conducted on an ongoing basis with category-specific review cycles.

Real Cost Report covers financial, legal, healthcare, and insurance topics — categories where inaccurate information has real consequences for readers. This page documents exactly how research is conducted, which sources are used for each coverage category, how figures are verified before publication, and what happens when something is wrong.

This is not a generic “we take accuracy seriously” statement. It is a specific, verifiable account of the research process behind every article on this site.

Who Conducts the Research

All research, data collection, analysis, and writing on Real Cost Report is conducted by Dai Luong Ngo, the sole publisher of this site. Dai brings a background in digital data forensics — specifically the forensic analysis of financial discrepancies in programmatic advertising supply chains — to consumer financial journalism. The core discipline is the same in both fields: locate the authoritative data source, extract the raw figure, verify it independently, and never accept an aggregated or vendor-summarized output as a substitute for the primary record.

Full credentials and background are documented on the About the Publisher page.

General Research Standards

Primary Sources Only

Every figure published on this site is traced to a named primary source before publication. A primary source, as defined for this site, is a document or database published directly by the authoritative institution responsible for that data — not a secondary report, press release, or aggregator that cites the original.

If a verified figure from a primary source is unavailable at the time of writing, the article states this explicitly rather than substituting an estimate. Placeholder language used in those cases: “[Data: insert current figure from {source name}]” — visible to editors during the review process before publication.

No URLs Invented or Assumed

External links in the Methodology section of each article point only to URLs that have been confirmed live and accurate at the time of writing. If a source is referenced but a stable direct URL cannot be confirmed, the institution name is cited in prose with guidance on where to verify: e.g., “Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (verify at cms.gov).”

Modeled vs. Measured Figures

Some figures published on this site are directly measured — pulled verbatim from a primary source document. Others are modeled: a published rate is applied to a specific scenario (loan amount, age, location, coverage level) to produce a concrete dollar figure that illustrates the real-world impact of the data. All modeled figures are labeled as such within the article, typically with language such as “based on a scenario of…” or “modeled from [source] data.”

Data Ranges

When primary source data shows a range rather than a single figure — for example, attorney hourly rates across a state, or insurance premium variation by risk profile — both endpoints of the range are reported along with an explanation of the variables that drive the spread. Averages are not published without disclosure of the underlying distribution.

Primary Sources by Coverage Category

Legal (/legal/)

Legal cost data is sourced from:

  • PACER (pacer.gov) — federal court filing records and case data
  • State court websites — filing fees, procedural costs, and case outcomes by jurisdiction
  • American Bar Association (americanbar.org) — attorney compensation surveys and legal fee benchmarks
  • State bar association surveys — hourly rate data by practice area and experience level

Legal content carries the disclaimer: “This is not legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your state.” This disclaimer appears above the TL;DR section of every legal article.

Insurance (/insurance/)

Insurance rate and coverage data is sourced from:

  • National Association of Insurance Commissioners — NAIC (naic.org) — state-filed rate data, market conduct reports, and insurer financial filings
  • AM Best (ambest.com) — insurer financial strength ratings
  • Insurance Information Institute (iii.org) — industry-wide premium averages and loss data
  • State insurance department rate filings — for jurisdiction-specific premium data

Insurance rate articles carry the disclaimer: “Rates shown are sample averages. Your premium varies by risk profile, state, and insurer.” This disclaimer appears directly below any rate table.

Mortgage & Home Finance (/mortgage/)

Mortgage rate and cost data is sourced from:

  • Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) — the standard benchmark for weekly average 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgage rates in the United States, published weekly at freddiemac.com/pmms
  • Federal Reserve H.15 Statistical Release (federalreserve.gov) — selected interest rates including mortgage benchmarks
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — CFPB (consumerfinance.gov) — closing cost data, lender disclosure standards, and consumer complaint data

Mortgage rate articles carry the disclaimer: “Rates change daily. Figures reflect [Month Year] averages. Contact an NMLS-registered lender for current rates.”

Loans & Credit (/loans/)

Loan rate and consumer credit data is sourced from:

  • Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit Release — outstanding consumer credit and interest rate data by loan category
  • CFPB (consumerfinance.gov) — personal loan market reports and APR disclosure standards
  • Lender-disclosed APRs — where rate ranges are cited for specific lenders, these reflect publicly disclosed APR ranges from the lender’s own published materials, not estimated figures

All loan rate content includes APR disclosure language adjacent to any rate table, in compliance with standard lending disclosure conventions.

Investing & Wealth Management (/investing/)

Investment and retirement data is sourced from:

  • SEC EDGAR (sec.gov/edgar) — fund filings, expense ratios, and investment advisor disclosures
  • FINRA BrokerCheck (finra.org/brokercheck) — broker and advisor registration and disciplinary data
  • Federal Reserve FRED (fred.stlouisfed.org) — macroeconomic and financial data including savings rates, yield data, and historical market returns
  • IRS publications — contribution limits, tax treatment, and retirement account rules

Investing content carries the disclaimer: “Past performance does not indicate future results. This is not investment advice.”

Healthcare & Medical Costs (/healthcare/)

Healthcare cost and coverage data is sourced from:

  • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — CMS (cms.gov) — Medicare premium schedules, Part D formulary data, and Medicaid program data. Medicare premium and Part D data changes annually; all figures are date-stamped to the applicable plan year.
  • Medicare.gov — plan comparison data and Medicare Advantage coverage details
  • Kaiser Family Foundation — KFF (kff.org) — health insurance market analysis, employer coverage surveys, and Medicaid enrollment data
  • CDC (cdc.gov) — disease prevalence, treatment frequency, and public health data
  • AHRQ — Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (ahrq.gov) — healthcare cost and utilization data
  • Hospital price transparency portals — for facility-specific procedure cost data where available

Healthcare content carries the disclaimer: “This is not medical advice. Consult a licensed healthcare provider for medical decisions and a licensed insurance agent for coverage decisions.”

Small Business & LLC (/business/)

Business formation and compliance data is sourced from:

  • IRS publications (irs.gov) — cited by specific publication number for tax and payroll requirements
  • U.S. Small Business Administration — SBA (sba.gov) — business formation guides, loan program data, and size standards
  • Bureau of Labor Statistics — BLS (bls.gov) — wage data, employment cost indices, and industry compensation benchmarks
  • State Secretary of State filings — LLC formation fees and registered agent requirements by state

Business articles note explicitly when state rules differ from federal
rules, as formation costs and compliance requirements vary significantly
by jurisdiction.

Estate Planning & Wills (/estate-planning/)

Estate planning cost and document data is sourced from:

  • NOLO (nolo.com) — attorney fee surveys, state-specific
    probate cost data, and plain-language guides to estate planning documents,
    produced and updated by licensed attorneys
  • American Bar Association — ABA (americanbar.org) —
    attorney compensation surveys and legal fee benchmarks by practice area,
    including estate planning specialization data
  • State probate court websites — filing fees, court cost
    schedules, and probate procedure requirements by jurisdiction. Rules vary
    significantly by state; articles cite the specific state court source when
    state-level figures are used.
  • IRS estate tax publications (irs.gov) — federal estate
    tax exemption thresholds, gift tax annual exclusion amounts, and
    generation-skipping transfer tax rules. These figures are adjusted annually;
    all figures are date-stamped to the applicable tax year.
  • National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys — NAELA
    (naela.org) — elder law and estate planning attorney practice standards
    and professional fee structures

Estate planning content carries the disclaimer: “This is not legal
advice. Consult an estate planning attorney licensed in your state for
guidance specific to your assets and family situation.” This disclaimer
appears above the TL;DR section of every estate planning article and at
the start of any procedural or document-preparation section within an
article.

Every article in this category frames content around cost and financial
decision-making only. This site does not provide step-by-step legal drafting
instructions or guidance intended to substitute for attorney review. Where
state law variation is material — probate rules, estate tax thresholds,
attorney fee structures — the article explicitly notes this and directs
readers to consult a licensed professional in their state.

Review & Update Schedule

Published articles are not static. Each article is assigned a review date at publication based on the volatility of its underlying data. The “Last Verified” date shown immediately below each article title reflects when the figures in that article were most recently confirmed against their primary sources.

  • Mortgage rate articles — reviewed quarterly (January, April, July, October) against Freddie Mac PMMS data
  • Medicare and health insurance articles — reviewed annually following CMS Open Enrollment announcements, typically in October
  • Personal loan and credit articles — reviewed quarterly against Federal Reserve G.19 release data
  • Legal fee and settlement data — reviewed when significant new ABA survey data or relevant regulatory changes are published
  • Business formation and tax articles — reviewed
    annually following IRS publication updates, typically in January
  • Estate planning and probate articles — reviewed
    annually following IRS publication of updated estate and gift tax
    exemption figures, typically in January. Probate cost articles are
    also reviewed when significant state law changes affecting court fee
    schedules or intestacy rules are identified.
  • All other articles — reviewed at minimum annually

Limitations of This Research

Readers should be aware of the following inherent limitations:

  • Geographic variation — cost data for legal fees, insurance premiums, home prices, and healthcare costs varies significantly by state and locality. National averages and ranges are reported where state-level data is not feasible within a single article.
  • Time lag — even with quarterly review cycles, published figures may not reflect the most recent market movements between review dates. The “Last Verified” date on each article indicates the currency of the data.
  • Individual variation — published rates, fees, and costs represent ranges and averages. Individual outcomes depend on personal circumstances — credit score, health history, location, legal complexity — that no published average can capture.
  • Modeled scenarios — scenario-based calculations illustrate how published rates translate into dollar figures for specific situations. They are not predictions and do not constitute quotes or estimates for any individual reader’s situation.

Corrections Policy

Errors are corrected promptly, documented transparently, and never quietly deleted.

How Corrections Are Handled

  • Factual errors — corrected as soon as identified. A dated correction note is added inline at the point of the error: “Correction [Month DD, YYYY]: The [figure/claim] has been updated from [original] to [corrected]. Source: [primary source].”
  • Outdated data — when a figure is accurate at time of publication but has since changed, the article is updated with the current figure and a note: “Updated [Month YYYY]: [Figure] reflects [source] data as of [date].”
  • Structural errors — if an article’s framing, methodology, or conclusion is found to be materially wrong, the article is revised in full with a correction note at the top explaining what changed and why.
  • No silent deletions — articles are not deleted to remove errors from the record. All corrections are documented in place with timestamps.

How to Report a Correction

To flag a potential error, use the Contact page or email [email protected] directly. For the fastest resolution, include:

  1. The URL of the article containing the error
  2. The specific claim or figure you believe is incorrect
  3. A link to a primary source supporting the correction

Every flagged correction is investigated before the next publication cycle continues on that article. If the correction is valid, it is published within two business days of confirmation.

Reader-Submitted Corrections

Reader corrections are taken seriously and credited where appropriate. If a reader identifies an error that leads to a published correction, the correction note will include: “Correction submitted by a reader.” No identifying information about the reader is published without their explicit consent.

Contact

Questions about research methodology, sourcing decisions, or specific figures used in an article:

Dai Luong Ngo, Editor
Real Cost Report
[email protected]