In Business Since 1971
Weiss Ratings empowers millions of investors with ratings, research and newsletters that provide the highest accuracy, the best safety and the most profitable investment guidance.
Each day of the year, we issue over 53,000 newly updated ratings, including investment ratings on nearly all U.S.-listed stocks, mutual funds and ETFs; safety ratings on nearly all U.S. banks, credit unions and insurance companies; plus cryptocurrency ratings on most actively traded digital assets.
Based on this vast array of ratings and research, our newsletters guide subscribers to investments and strategies with the goal of preserving and growing their wealth with confidence.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Weiss stock ratings ranked #1 in profit performance, ahead of ratings by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Standard & Poor’s, and all other firms covered.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Weiss insurance company ratings beat those of Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and A.M. Best by at least three to one in accuracy.
MV Index Solutions, a VanEck company, found that the Weiss crypto ratings outperformed the aggregate averages with compelling diversification benefits.
Esquire reported that Weiss is the only one providing grades with no conflicts of interest.
And countless others, including The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes and Fortune, have praised Weiss for its independence, objectivity and accuracy.
Meet the Weiss Team. Review our products and services.
1971
Dr. Martin Weiss launches his company.
1973
Weiss Ratings issues its first Weiss Bank Ratings.
1976
Dr. Weiss launches his flagship newsletter under the name Money & Markets with the headline "Interest Rates on the Move." This newsletter, later renamed Safe Money Report, becomes one of the longest-running investment newsletters — if not the longest — in the world.
1989
Weiss Ratings, a division of Weiss Research, issues the nation’s first independent ratings of life and health insurance companies.
1991
Weiss issues the nation’s first ratings of Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
U.S. House of Representatives: Martin D. Weiss testifies before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness regarding the insurance crisis, proposing better risk disclosure to consumers.
1992
The New York Times features Dr. Martin Weiss on the cover of its Business section with the headline "The Bad Boy of Insurance Ratings".
U.S. Senate: Dr. Weiss testifies before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs regarding the crisis of confidence in the insurance industry, proposing specific steps for overcoming the crisis.
Publishing industry: Weiss Research becomes a member of Newsletter and Electronic Publishers Association (NEPA).
1993
Weiss issues the nation’s first independent ratings of property and casualty insurance companies.
1994
Weiss Ratings Inc. is established as a separate corporation.
A landmark study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concludes that Weiss far outperforms all of the nation’s major rating agencies, including Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and A.M. Best, in warning of future life and health insurance company failures, including the failures of Executive Life of California, Executive Life of New York, Fidelity Bankers Life, First Capital Life, Mutual Benefit Life of New Jersey, and others. Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) — Insurance Ratings: Comparison of Private Agency Ratings for Life/Health Insurers.
Weiss Ratings issues the nation’s first financial safety ratings of health maintenance organizations.
Investors: Martin Weiss’ Safe Money Report warns that stock research and ratings issued by Wall Street brokerage and investment banking firms are distorted by conflicts of interest, offering investors recommendations on how to acquire unbiased and objective information.
1995
Weiss Group LLC is founded as a holding company of Weiss Research, Inc. and Weiss Ratings, Inc.
1998
Weiss Ratings issues its first Weiss Mutual Fund ratings.
1999
Investors: Martin Weiss’ Safe Money Report warns that a large percentage of corporate earnings reports are suspect of manipulation, offering investors instructions on how to avoid any adverse consequences.
Consumers: Martin Weiss offers free advice to Medicare beneficiaries being dropped from their HMOs.
2001
Weiss Ratings issues its first Weiss Stock Ratings.
2002
National Press Club: Martin Weiss presents the white paper, Crisis of Confidence on Wall Street, proposing ways to help investors make constructive, informed decisions in the selection of brokers.
National Press Club: Martin Weiss provides a white paper on accounting reform, proposing that corporate financial statements be reviewed quarterly and that the record of each auditing firm's warnings of future difficulties be tracked and disclosed to the public. The Senate e-mails highlights of the Weiss white paper to its members immediately prior to their vote on the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, sponsored by Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD).
SEC: Weiss submits industry commentary to the SEC regarding proposed rules on analyst certification. Weiss recommends that regulators address the sources and causes of the conflicts with more specific measures aimed at promoting a change in the structure of the investment banking and brokerage business.
SEC: Weiss submits public commentary proposing that nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) be required to operate without conflicts of interest in their business models, or failing to do so, to at least better disclose those conflicts.
2003
Weiss Ratings issues its first Weiss ETF Ratings.
SEC: Weiss submits comments on NYSE and NASD proposed changes relating to exchange rules and to research analyst conflicts of interest, proposing the creation of a comprehensive stock ratings database made widely available to the public, enabling investors to compare the ratings and historical track records of research analysts and their firms.
SEC and state regulators: Martin Weiss provides a detailed analysis and comparison of overlapping rule-making initiatives by the SEC, state attorneys general, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Global Settlement. Weiss proposes (1) a better centralization of the various initiatives under the SEC, (2) divestiture of investment banking from companies providing research analysis and recommendations, and (3) a better link between each analyst’s incentive compensation and his or her performance track record.
U.S. Senate: Martin Weiss submits testimony regarding medical malpractice caps, which, in turn, forms the primary basis of a presentation by Senator Kennedy on the Senate floor.
2004
Investorside Research Conference: Dr. Weiss presents white paper “Stock Research for the Global Settlement: Qualitative or Quantitative Approaches?” In it, Weiss demonstrates the constructive role quantitative approaches can play in shielding the research process from bias and conflicts, proposing that regulators shed any prejudice they may have against such approaches.
Financial Publishers: Martin Weiss founds the Financial Publishers Association, devoted to enhancing and maintaining the financial publishing industry's reputation for excellence while helping individual investors build their wealth.
2005
Weiss Ratings is awarded the most contracts in the Meritocracy established by the SEC as part of the global settlement requiring the major firms to provide independent equity research to their clients.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Weiss’ company’s stock ratings outperformed those issued by all brokers and independent research firms they covered, including JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Piper Jaffray, Credit Suisse First Boston, Smith Barney, S&P Equity Research, Morgan Stanley and 14 others. Source: Wall Street Journal, “Stock Research Gets More Reliable,” June 7, 2005.
2006
Weiss Group sells Weiss Ratings to TheStreet.com.
2007
Dr. Weiss warns “Bear Stearns has sunk its balance sheet even deeper into the hole, with $20.2 billion in dead assets, or 155 percent of its equity, and is threatened with insolvency.” Bear Stearns collapsed 33 days later. At the same time, he published an article warning that “Lehman Brothers is in similar shape because of an even larger $34.7 billion pile-up of dead assets, or 160% of its equity.” Lehman collapsed 182 days later.
Federal Reserve and FDIC: Weiss Research submits its white paper “How Federal Regulators, Lenders, and Wall Street Created America’s Housing Crisis — Nine Proposals for a Long-Term Recovery” by Michael D. Larson.
2008
During and after the Great Financial Crisis, 465 banks failed, catching millions of Americans off guard. But with his ratings, Dr. Weiss was able to warn in advance about 464 of those banks, an accuracy rate of 99.8%.
U.S. Congress: Weiss Research submits its white paper “Proposed $700 Billion Bailout Is Too Little, Too Late to End the Debt Crisis; Too Much, Too Soon for the U.S. Bond Market” by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. and Michael D. Larson.
International Monetary Fund: Weiss Research submits its letter “Re: Global banking bailouts” by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. to Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
2009
National Press Club: Weiss Research presents its white paper “Dangerous Unintended Consequences: How Banking Bailouts, Buyouts and Nationalization Can Only Prolong America’s Second Great Depression and Weaken Any Subsequent Recovery“ by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.
The National Center on Family Homelessness: Martin D. Weiss donates 100 percent of his present and future royalties earned on his new book, The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide, to the Campaign to End Child Homelessness, with the first donation ($100,000) made on April 17.
2010
Weiss Group repurchases the insurance and bank ratings back from The Street. Weiss Ratings, LLC is established.
2013
Weiss Ratings returns to the stock ratings business with an updated model.
2015
Weiss Ratings publishes its new mutual fund and ETF ratings.
2016
Weissratings.com, incorporating the former WeissWatchdog.com, receives a complete facelift with new tools and a modern customer friendly interface.
2018
Weiss Ratings publishes the first ever ratings of cryptocurrencies and launches the company’s first crypto newsletter.
2020
Weiss Responds to Pandemic: When coronavirus wreaked physical and economic havoc across the globe, Weiss wanted to do its part to help our community maintain its financial health and safety by making the ratings free to everyone who wanted them, no strings attached, for the duration of the pandemic.
2021
Weiss Ratings celebrates its 50th anniversary by relaunching WeissRatings.com with three major upgrades. First, the merging of Weiss’ Crypto, Pivotal Point, Wealth Wave and paid issues websites into one central location. Second, the launch of high-powered data tools to help investors research, rank and select from more than 53,000 rated investments, companies and cryptos. And third, a watchlist feature for users to track an unlimited number of investments and receive an alert whenever there are rating downgrades or upgrades.
2023
Weiss Ratings warns that 4,243 U.S. depositary institutions could be vulnerable to failure. Among them, 1,210 (12.8%) got a red warning flag, signaling risk of imminent failure. And 3,043 received a yellow warning flag, indicating risk of failure in a financial crisis or recession. In sum, 45% of all banks and credit unions were deemed vulnerable.
After several years of development, artificial intelligence (AI) modeling was incorporated into a Weiss trading portfolio for the first time.
2024
Weiss Ratings reveals that three large providers of homeowners insurance in Florida - Castle Key Indemnity Co., State Farm Florida Insurance Co. and Castle Key Insurance Co. - closed more than 40% of their claims in 2023 with no payment whatsoever to policyholders.