How the scores work
Each firm gets up to 100 points from facts anyone can check on public pages. We read those pages on November 1, 2026. Anyone can follow the rules below and reach the same score.
Credentials: 15 points
We count the people a firm's own site shows with a Reserve Specialist (RS), Professional Reserve Analyst (PRA) or Professional Engineer (PE) designation. A person named with one of those designations as the signer of the firm's public sample report also counts, even if the firm has no team page. Each person counts once. An unnamed designation, such as a certificate number without a name, doesn't count, because readers can't check it.
| People shown | Points |
|---|---|
| 20 or more | 11 |
| 10 to 19 | 9 |
| 5 to 9 | 7 |
| 2 to 4 | 5 |
| 1 | 3 |
| None shown | 0 |
A firm earns 4 more points if APRA's public directory lists someone at the firm with a PRA. The directory is opt-in, so a missing listing doesn't mean a firm has no PRA.
Track record: 20 points
| Stated founding year (as of 2026) | Points |
|---|---|
| 30 or more years | 12 |
| 20 to 29 years | 10 |
| 10 to 19 years | 7 |
| Under 10 years | 4 |
| Not stated | 0 |
| Firm's stated study count | Points |
|---|---|
| 10,000 or more in total | 8 |
| 1,000 or more, either in total or per year | 6 |
| Not stated | 0 |
Study counts are each firm's own claims, and they aren't fully comparable.
Transparency: 20 points
| What the firm shows publicly | Points |
|---|---|
| A sample report anyone can open | 10 |
| A team page naming the people who do the work, not only executives | 7 |
| An explanation of its process or service levels | 3 |
Pricing: 22 points
This measures how openly a firm publishes prices, not how much it charges. Runway Reserves is the only firm that earns all 22 points. See where each firm lands.
| What the firm publishes | Points |
|---|---|
| A price list by community size, with the site visit included | 22 |
| A fee list by community size, with the site visit quoted separately | 17 |
| A starting price, without saying whether it includes a site visit | 13 |
| Prices for other products, but not for studies with a site visit | 10 |
| General cost ranges, not a price list | 5 |
| No dollar figure found | 0 |
Speed: 16 points
Speed scores the standard turnaround each firm states on its own public pages. Where a firm gives a range, we use the upper end, and where it offers several service levels, we use the standard one, not rush. A firm that states no turnaround gets 0. Once a firm has a documented record, meaning the median time from site visit to delivered report across at least 5 studies from the past 24 months with both dates checkable, that record replaces its stated time.
| Stated (or documented) turnaround | Points |
|---|---|
| Within 1 week | 16 |
| Within 2 weeks | 13 |
| Within 4 weeks | 10 |
| Within 8 weeks | 5 |
| Longer than 8 weeks | 2 |
| No turnaround stated | 0 |
Stated times aren't fully comparable. The clocks start at different points: ours and Capital Reserve Analysts' start at the site visit, Reserve Advisors' at the visit and receipt of documents, Association Reserves' at the signed agreement and deposit, and Reserve Study Group's at the signed contract. A stated time is a claim, not a record, and ours comes from a firm with no delivered studies yet. No firm has a documented record yet. Any firm can send dated records, or point us to a newly stated turnaround, through our corrections process.
Coverage: 7 points
| Where the firm says it works | Points |
|---|---|
| Nationwide | 7 |
| 10 or more states | 5 |
| 2 to 9 states | 3 |
| 1 state | 2 |
What the scores can't tell you
- Study quality. We didn't review studies, compare forecasts or survey boards.
- Whether a firm suits you. The method favors large firms. Credentials, study counts and coverage all grow with size, and a small local firm can serve a community very well.
- Things a firm has but doesn't show. Missing means we didn't find it on the pages we read, not that the firm lacks it. We didn't read every page of every site.
- Actual speed. We score what firms say, not what they deliver. Most firms state no time and get 0, though they may well be fast. Ours is a promise from a firm with no delivery record yet.
- Customer reviews. We left out ratings because large firms have many office listings with few reviews each, so the numbers don't compare fairly.
- Cost. We score how openly firms publish prices, not how much they charge. We didn't collect quotes.
Judgment calls
- CAI's directory: we couldn't open CAI's credential directory, so RS designations are as shown on each firm's site. We didn't verify them with CAI. Check any person's credential yourself before you rely on it.
- A person on two sites: one person appears on the team pages of both Association Reserves and Browning Reserve Group. We counted that person for neither.
- Job titles: we counted designations, not titles. Reserve Study Group's "Reserve Specialist" job title didn't count on its own.
- Founding years: Miller Dodson is scored from 2002, when the present firm was established, not from its 1985 roots.
- Related firms: Browning is a division of Reserve Advisors, and SmartProperty's CEO is Barrera's principal shareholder. Each still has its own entry because each sells under its own name, and we flag the tie on both.
- Ties: firms with the same score share a rank.
How we scored ourselves
Runway Reserves is scored by the same rules as every other firm, and it ranks 3rd of 13 with 60 points:
| Category | Why | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Credentials | No one with an RS, PRA or PE, and no APRA listing | 0 |
| Track record | Founded in 2026, with no study count stated | 4 |
| Transparency | Sample report (10), process explained (3), no named analysts (0) | 13 |
| Pricing | A published price list by size, with the site visit included | 22 |
| Speed | A stated one-week turnaround from the site visit, with no delivered studies yet | 16 |
| Coverage | 38 states open and 2 open for some association types | 5 |
Three choices help us, and you should weigh them:
- The weight on pricing. We raised pricing to 20 of the 100 points after seeing how we scored when it was worth 5, which tied us for 10th. It's now 22 of 100. Boards do need to compare cost, but this weight also favors us.
- Scoring stated speed. On November 5, 2026 we began scoring stated turnaround times, and we cut credentials from 29 to 15 points. Before that change we ranked 6th with 39 points. Our 16 speed points rest on a promise, not a record.
- Our sample report. It's for a fictional community, and we counted it because the rule asks for a sample report anyone can open. Without those 10 points, we'd score 50 and rank 4th.
A site can also state a coverage area before it has done any work there, so read our coverage points in that light.
Who leads on what
The category leaders on the rankings page are separate from the overall score. Each one rests on a single fact: the most people shown with a credential, the largest claimed study count, the earliest founding year, and a published price list that includes the site visit.
We chose those categories, and one of them is the one our own company leads. It's the only category Runway Reserves leads, and it says nothing about study quality.
Where our bias could enter
We chose the firms, the criteria, the categories and the weights, we scored our own company, and we compete with every firm listed. The transparency criteria reward things we do ourselves, such as publishing prices and a sample report. The pricing criteria reward what we do most. We put 35 of the 100 points on credentials and track record, where we score poorly, down from 47 before November 5, 2026. Read these rankings as a competitor's work. Read the full disclosure.