Help and FAQ

Last reviewed: 28 May 2026 by Kestutis Balciunas, editor of Financial Expert Class.

This Help and FAQ is the long version: how this site works, who is behind it, how I make money, what the paid Substack at getdividends.net is, how we handle your data under UK and EU GDPR, and what to do if you spot a mistake. If your question is not answered below, email [email protected] or use the form on the Contacts page.

Important risk notice. Financial Expert Class is published for general educational purposes only. It is not personalised financial, tax, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including the permanent loss of capital. We are not authorised by any financial regulator (such as the UK’s FCA, Cyprus’s CySEC, Germany’s BaFin, or Poland’s KNF) to provide regulated investment advice. Please read the Terms and Conditions, the Affiliate Disclosure, and the Editorial Process page before relying on anything here, and consult a licensed adviser in your country before making a decision that is material to your finances.

About This Site

Who runs Financial Expert Class, what this site is (and is not), where the content applies, and how often it is updated.

Who is behind Financial Expert Class?

I’m Kestutis Balciunas, the editor and primary author. I’m 37, a European retail investor, a husband and a father, and I have more than 11 years of self-directed, Bogleheads-style passive and dividend ETF experience. I am self-taught rather than licensed as a financial adviser. My investing approach is shaped by the Bogleheads forum, John Bogle, JL Collins (The Simple Path to Wealth), and Lars Kroijer (Investing Demystified). I opened my first brokerage account in 2014, moved to Interactive Brokers in 2016, opened my Freedom24 account in 2022, and I currently run UCITS dividend portfolios across Interactive Brokers, Freedom24, and Trade Republic. Financial Expert Class is owned and operated by Aurum Digital Marketing LTD, registered in England and Wales. I also publish on Medium, run the paid Substack at getdividends.net, and share notes on LinkedIn and X. Full background on the About Me page; entity details on the Contacts page; how I work on the Editorial Process page. Media or partnership questions: [email protected].

Is this financial advice?

No. Nothing on Financial Expert Class is personalised financial, tax, or legal advice. I am not authorised by any financial regulator (such as the UK’s FCA, Cyprus’s CySEC, Germany’s BaFin, or Poland’s KNF) to provide regulated advice. Every article, calculator, broker review, and ETF (exchange-traded fund) comparison on this site is published for general educational purposes only. Markets carry real risk, including the permanent loss of capital. What is suitable for you depends on your income, debts, time horizon, tax residency, and personal goals. Before acting on anything you read here, please do your own research. If your situation is complex or material, speak with a regulated adviser in your country. See the Terms and Conditions for the full risk disclaimer.

What countries / jurisdictions does the content apply to?

The site is written from a European retail-investor perspective and most examples assume you are buying UCITS ETFs (the EU rulebook for retail funds) through a European broker. I routinely mention rules and regulators that affect European readers, including ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU-level financial regulator), BaFin (Germany’s financial supervisor), KNF (Poland’s financial regulator), AMF (France’s market regulator), CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission), and the FCA (UK Financial Conduct Authority). Readers from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Asia are welcome, but please remember that product availability, tax treatment, and broker access differ sharply by country. If a feature, broker, or ETF is restricted in your jurisdiction, follow the rules in your country first — not the examples on this page.

What is the relationship between Financial Expert Class, getdividends.net (Substack), and Aurum Digital Marketing LTD?

Aurum Digital Marketing LTD is the UK-registered operating company. Financial Expert Class (financialexpertclass.com) is the free, publicly indexed website covering ETF education, broker reviews, and investment strategy for European readers. getdividends.net is the paid Substack newsletter I write, where deeper dividend research, model portfolio updates, and subscriber-only posts live behind a paywall. The two properties share an author (me) and editorial standards, but they are separate platforms with separate subscription systems. The free site funds itself through display partners and affiliate links; the Substack is funded directly by paid subscribers. You can move between the two using the cross-links at the foot of every article.

How often is content updated?

I aim to publish a new long-form article roughly every week, and I run a rolling review cycle on the existing library of around 183 published posts (as of 28 May 2026). Time-sensitive pages — broker reviews, fee tables, tax notes, and Best [Issuer] ETFs roundups — are scheduled for review at least every six to twelve months, and sooner when a regulator, broker, or issuer changes something material. I am rolling out a visible Last reviewed date on every legal and high-traffic page, and aim to complete the rollout across the rest of the library through 2026. If you spot something stale, please email [email protected] or use the form on the Contacts page and I will queue it for the next review pass.

Affiliate Links, Money, and Trust

How we get paid, whether it costs you more, how it affects reviews, which brokers we partner with, and what to do if something goes wrong.

Do you make money from broker recommendations?

Yes, and I want to be explicit about it. When you open an account with one of our partner brokers through a tracked link on this site, the broker may pay Aurum Digital Marketing LTD a referral fee or revenue share. Those payments help fund hosting, research tools (justETF, Morningstar premium data where applicable), and the time it takes to write and update the library. We only sign affiliate agreements with brokers I personally use or have used — I have held an Interactive Brokers account since 2016, a Freedom24 account since 2022, and a Trade Republic account for ongoing ETF savings plans, and I use Nexo for crypto savings. We never accept payment to write a positive review. The full disclosure, including the brokers we are paid by, lives on the Affiliate Disclosure page.

No. Affiliate links do not change the price or fee structure you see at the broker. The commissions, spreads, custody fees, and FX (foreign-exchange) charges shown on the broker’s own website are exactly what you will pay whether you click our link, type the URL by hand, or arrive through a Google ad. In some cases, our partner links actually unlock sign-up bonuses — for example free fractional shares, cashback, or a fee waiver for the first months — that are not available through the broker’s plain homepage. Those bonuses are always set by the broker, not by us, and we link to the broker’s own promotion page so you can verify the current terms.

Does your affiliate relationship change your reviews?

It does not change the score, but I want to be honest about the structure. Because Financial Expert Class is a small operation, I write the reviews AND I sign the affiliate agreements — there is no separate editorial wall, because there is no separate editorial team. The real safeguard is the published scoring rubric and the fact that I publish criticisms of partner brokers in plain English where they apply. Every broker review follows the same rubric: regulation, deposit protection, costs, product range, platform quality, customer support, and my personal experience opening and using the account. If a partner broker scores badly on a category, I say so — and you will find those criticisms in our current reviews. The full conflicts-of-interest policy is on the Editorial Process page.

Which brokers do you currently have affiliate relationships with?

At the time of this review, Aurum Digital Marketing LTD has active affiliate relationships with five brokers, and only these five:

  • Freedom24 — regulated by CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission).
  • Interactive Brokers / IBKR — European clients are typically onboarded to Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland) or Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited (regulated by the FCA), with group entities also overseen by the SEC in the US.
  • XTB — regulated by KNF (Poland’s financial regulator).
  • Nexo — a multi-jurisdictional crypto earn and lending platform.
  • Trade Republic — regulated by BaFin (Germany’s financial supervisor).

We do not have paid relationships with any other broker, neobroker, robo-adviser, CFD provider, or copy-trading platform. If you see any other broker recommended in an article on this site, it is either an organic mention for context or a comparison point, not a paid placement. The live list is maintained on the Affiliate Disclosure page.

What if I have a complaint about a broker you recommended?

Start with the broker’s own internal complaints procedure — by law, every regulated broker has one, and they must respond within a defined window. If that fails, escalate to the broker’s home regulator:

EU residents can also use the European Online Dispute Resolution platform at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. We have no legal authority to mediate between you and a broker, but we do want to hear about serious problems so we can flag them in future reviews — email [email protected].

What paid subscribers get, what it costs, how billing and refunds work, and whether you can read it without an account.

The paid Substack lives at https://getdividends.net/ and I write it personally. Free readers receive a regular newsletter with general dividend-investing commentary and previews. Paid subscribers unlock the full archive of deep-dive posts, detailed dividend ETF screens, model-portfolio updates, behind-the-scenes notes on real trades placed in my Interactive Brokers, Freedom24, and Trade Republic accounts (with portfolio weights shared in approximate ranges, not exact euro figures), and longer essays on European dividend strategy that I do not republish on the free site. Paid subscribers can also comment on every post and ask questions directly in the comment thread. As of 28 May 2026, getdividends.net has a small but growing paid subscriber base; current open and click rates are shared with paying subscribers in periodic transparency notes. None of the Substack content is personalised financial advice — the same disclaimer that applies on financialexpertclass.com applies on getdividends.net.

Pricing is set inside Substack and you can see the current monthly and annual prices at https://getdividends.net/. Substack handles billing in the major currencies it supports — typically USD, EUR, and GBP — and converts using its own payment processor (Stripe). Annual plans usually carry a discount versus paying monthly, and a founding-member tier is occasionally offered for readers who want to support the project at a higher level. I do not publish promotional pricing on this Help and FAQ page because the live numbers can change; please check the Substack landing page itself for the current rate, applicable VAT in your country, and any active discount.

How do I subscribe, cancel, or get a refund on the paid Substack?

All subscription management for the paid Substack happens inside your Substack account, not on this site. To subscribe, visit https://getdividends.net/ and pick a plan. To cancel, sign in to Substack, open Settings, choose the getdividends.net subscription, and click Cancel — your access continues until the end of the period you have already paid for. Refunds are handled under Substack’s standard refund policy (see https://substack.com/tos). In most of the EU and the UK, consumer law gives you a 14-day cooling-off window for digital subscriptions, subject to the terms you accept at checkout; for requests inside that window, contact Substack support and I will support any reasonable request. If you have a billing dispute we cannot solve, email [email protected].

Can I read the paid posts without creating a Substack account?

No. The paid posts are gated behind Substack’s login system, so you need a free Substack account at minimum to read anything beyond the public previews. We do this so we can verify your subscription, deliver paid posts by email, and let you comment as a verified subscriber. I also occasionally cross-post excerpts on the free Financial Expert Class blog and on https://financialexpertclass.medium.com/, but the full deep-dive versions stay on Substack. If you do not want to create another account, the free articles on this site already cover most beginner and intermediate ETF questions in depth — start with the ETF Education section.

Do you offer student or hardship discounts on the Substack?

Yes, on a case-by-case basis. Substack supports comp subscriptions and reduced-price group plans, and I have used both quietly for readers in financial difficulty, full-time students, and people in countries where the standard price is a meaningful share of monthly income. There is no public application form — please email [email protected] from the account you would use to subscribe, briefly explain your situation, and I will reply within a few business days. I would rather you read the work and learn than turn you away over the price, but I do reserve the right to decline if requests look automated or commercial.

Brokers and Product Questions

How to pick between our partner brokers, what to do if one is not available in your country, how to read the on-site calculators, and how we handle UCITS restrictions.

How do I choose between Freedom24, Interactive Brokers, XTB, Trade Republic, and Nexo?

Match the broker to your goal. Interactive Brokers / IBKR is the workhorse for serious multi-currency UCITS ETF investors who want the widest exchange access and the lowest per-trade cost at scale. Trade Republic suits passive savers in the eurozone who want simple monthly ETF savings plans inside a BaFin-regulated app (BaFin is Germany’s financial supervisor). XTB is strong for Polish, German, and other EU users who want commission-free ETF investing with a clean platform, under KNF supervision (Poland’s regulator). Freedom24 fits investors who want IPO (initial public offering) access and US/EU equity coverage from a CySEC-regulated EU broker. Nexo is not a stockbroker — it is a crypto earn and lending platform. Read the long-form review for each before deciding, check the investor-compensation scheme that applies to the entity onboarding you (for example ICF in Cyprus, FSCS in the UK, EdB in Germany), and remember that the underlying market risk on your investments is not covered by any compensation scheme.

What if a recommended broker is not available in my country?

Broker availability is decided by each broker’s licence and risk policy, not by us. If you open the sign-up flow and the broker tells you it cannot accept clients from your country, please respect that — using a VPN or fake address to bypass it can void your account and your investor protection. In that case, look for a locally regulated alternative: check your national regulator’s public register (for example https://www.fca.org.uk/, https://www.bafin.de/, https://www.knf.gov.pl/, or https://www.cysec.gov.cy/) for licensed firms, and check independent broker comparison sites such as https://www.brokerchooser.com/ or https://www.justetf.com/. I am happy to suggest comparable EU-regulated options by email — [email protected].

Are the on-site calculators (Compound Growth, Dividend Investing, Financial Freedom, Nexo Earnings) accurate?

The calculators use standard, well-known financial formulas: compound interest, dividend reinvestment, withdrawal rate modelling (estimating how much you can safely take out in retirement), and simple yield projection. They are accurate within those formulas, but they are still simplifications of the real world. They do not account for your specific tax residency, withholding taxes on US-domiciled funds, broker fees, FX spreads (the hidden cost when your broker converts currencies), inflation surprises, or sequence-of-returns risk (the danger that a market crash early in retirement permanently damages your portfolio). Treat the output as a planning sketch, not a forecast. The Nexo Earnings calculator in particular depends on Nexo’s published rates, which change at Nexo’s discretion and can move quickly. If you want a realistic personal projection, run the numbers through several different assumptions and, where it matters, ask a regulated adviser.

Do you cover UCITS-restricted European investors who cannot buy US-domiciled ETFs?

Yes — that is the default assumption on this site. Under the EU PRIIPs / KID rules (a regulation that requires every retail product to publish a short Key Information Document), most retail investors in the EU and the UK cannot buy US-domiciled ETFs (such as VOO, VTI, SCHD, or JEPI) through a regulated EU/UK broker because the issuer does not publish a compliant Key Information Document. Almost every Best [Issuer] ETFs roundup on Financial Expert Class therefore focuses on UCITS equivalents from major European issuers — iShares, Vanguard, Amundi, Xtrackers, Invesco, SPDR, VanEck, and WisdomTree. I use https://www.justetf.com/ and issuer factsheets as primary product sources, and I flag clearly when an ETF is US-only and therefore off-limits for typical EU readers.

Using the Content

What you may republish or quote, whether we offer paid consultations, how to commission work, and our guest-post policy.

Can I share or republish your articles on my own site?

You can share links and quote short passages with attribution — please link back to the original article on https://financialexpertclass.com/. Republishing a full article, translating it into another language, or scraping the site to train a model is not permitted without written permission from Aurum Digital Marketing LTD. The full licensing terms are in our Terms and Conditions. If you run a personal finance blog, a financial-literacy charity, or a newsletter and you would like to republish a piece in full, email [email protected] with the article URL, your audience, and where it would be published, and I will reply within a few business days.

Can I quote you in a blog post or YouTube video?

Yes — quoting me or this site in a blog post, YouTube video, podcast, or research paper is welcome under normal fair-use and quotation conventions. Please attribute the quote to Kestutis Balciunas, Financial Expert Class, and link to the specific page you are quoting from. If you are a journalist, podcaster, or YouTuber and you would like an on-the-record interview, a written quote on a specific topic, or a fact check on an ETF or broker claim, please email [email protected] with your outlet, deadline, and a short brief. I try to respond to media requests within two business days where the topic falls inside my expertise.

Do you offer 1-on-1 coaching or paid consultations?

No. I am a self-taught investor, not a regulated financial adviser, and providing personalised investment recommendations in most European jurisdictions is a regulated activity reserved for authorised firms. For that reason I deliberately do not offer 1-on-1 coaching, personal portfolio reviews, paid investment plans, or paid Q&A calls on this site. The closest thing I offer is the paid Substack at https://getdividends.net/, which is general educational content, plus public commenting on free articles. If you need personalised advice — pension planning, inheritance, tax optimisation, structuring a large lump sum — please use your national regulator’s public register to find a licensed independent adviser.

Can I commission a custom ETF analysis or broker comparison?

Aurum Digital Marketing LTD occasionally takes on commercial writing work — sponsored deep dives, white papers, brand-funded comparison articles — and we keep that work entirely separate from the editorial library on Financial Expert Class. Any commissioned piece is clearly labelled as sponsored, paid, or partner content. The label sits at the top of the page and inside the byline, in line with US FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and EU consumer-protection guidance. We will not accept commissions to attack a competitor, write a misleading review, or change a published score in exchange for payment. To discuss a commission, brief us at [email protected] with your company, the topic, and the audience you want to reach.

Do you accept guest posts?

I accept a very small number of guest posts each year, and only from people with genuine, demonstrable expertise in a topic the European audience cares about — UCITS ETFs, European broker mechanics, EU tax for retail investors, dividend strategy, FIRE in Europe, or behavioural finance. I do not publish generic SEO link-building posts, AI-generated drafts, or pieces that exist mainly to promote a product. If you want to pitch, email [email protected] with three article ideas, links to your previously published work, and a short bio. I reply to every serious pitch even when the answer is no, but I usually do not respond to mass outreach.

Data, Privacy, and Comments

What we collect, how to exercise your GDPR rights, why a comment may be rejected, how we use AI, and which sources we cite.

How do I make a UK or EU GDPR data subject request?

The data controller for financialexpertclass.com is Aurum Digital Marketing LTD, registered in England and Wales. Under the UK GDPR (overseen by the Information Commissioner’s Office, https://ico.org.uk/) and the EU GDPR (with European-level guidance from the European Data Protection Board, https://edpb.europa.eu/), you have several rights:

  • Access — see what data we hold on you.
  • Rectification — correct it.
  • Erasure — ask us to delete it.
  • Restriction — limit how we use it.
  • Portability — receive a copy in a portable format.
  • Objection — ask us to stop a specific use.

To exercise them, email [email protected] from the address you believe we hold, write GDPR Request in the subject line, and tell us which right you want to use. We will reply within one calendar month, free of charge for normal requests, and may ask for proof of identity to make sure we do not disclose your data to someone else. Full details are in the Privacy Policy.

Why was my comment not approved?

Every comment on Financial Expert Class is manually moderated before it appears. I approve comments that are on-topic, respectful, and useful to other readers. I do not approve comments that contain spam links, affiliate codes for unrelated products, abusive language, personal attacks, hate speech, conspiracy theories about brokers or regulators, what looks like AI-generated keyword filler, or specific buy/sell recommendations for individual securities. I also reject comments that look like attempts to leak personal data about other readers. If your comment was genuinely on-topic and you think it was rejected by mistake, email [email protected] with the article URL and the gist of what you wanted to say and I will take another look.

Do you use AI to write articles?

I use AI tools as research and editing assistants, but every published article on Financial Expert Class is written, reviewed, and signed off by a human — almost always me. I use large language models the way other writers use spell-checkers, search engines, and outline tools: to brainstorm, summarise long PDFs (KIDs, issuer factsheets, regulator guidance), tighten sentences, and double-check formatting. I do not publish raw AI output, I do not auto-generate broker reviews, and I do not allow AI tools to invent statistics or quotes. The full position on AI assistance, including which models I use and what I forbid them from doing, is published on the Editorial Process page.

Why do you cite Morningstar / justETF / ETF.com instead of original research?

For ETF data — TER (Total Expense Ratio, the yearly fee an ETF charges), fund size, tracking difference, holdings, domicile, replication method, distribution policy — I lean on the established data providers (https://www.morningstar.com/, https://www.justetf.com/, https://www.etf.com/) and the issuer’s own factsheets and Key Information Documents. Those sources have audited data pipelines, regulatory obligations, and full-time analysts; I do not, and I would rather cite a known authority than guess. Where I add value is in synthesis: translating the European retail investor’s questions into the right data fields, comparing UCITS alternatives, and explaining the practical implications in plain English. For investing philosophy, I lean on Bogleheads (https://www.bogleheads.org/), John Bogle, JL Collins (The Simple Path to Wealth), and Lars Kroijer (Investing Demystified).

Editorial & Corrections

How to report a mistake, how fast we fix it, and how we choose what to publish next.

How do I report a factual error in an article?

Please tell me. Email [email protected] with the article URL, a short quote of the passage you think is wrong, and, where possible, a primary source for the correct number — for example an issuer factsheet, a regulator page, or a broker’s own pricing page. You can also leave a comment on the article itself; even if I do not publish the comment, I will see it. I treat factual errors on YMYL (Your Money or Your Life, Google’s term for high-stakes topics) financial topics seriously, especially when they touch fees, tax, regulator status, or risk warnings, and I would rather hear about a problem from a reader than discover it later. There is no penalty for politely flagging mistakes.

How long does it take to publish a correction?

For clear factual errors — a wrong TER (Total Expense Ratio, the yearly fee an ETF charges), an out-of-date regulator name, a broken link, a renamed ETF, a fee that has changed — I aim to fix the article within 48 to 72 hours of confirming the issue. For more complex corrections, where the change affects the conclusion of a review or comparison, I may take up to two weeks to re-research, re-write, and re-edit before pushing the update live. Every meaningful correction updates the Last reviewed date at the top of the page, and material corrections (those that change a recommendation, a fee, or a regulatory status) are appended in a visible Corrections section at the bottom of the article with the date and a one-line description of what changed. The full correction policy lives on the Editorial Process page.

How do you decide what to write about next?

Three inputs drive the editorial calendar. First, reader questions: emails to [email protected], comments on existing articles, and public replies and mentions on LinkedIn and X. Second, market and product changes: a new UCITS ETF launch, a regulator action, a broker fee update, or a meaningful tax change in a major European country. Third, gaps in the existing library — topics where I have a strong opinion but no published article, or where an old piece needs a full rewrite. Paid Substack subscribers at https://getdividends.net/ get an outsized vote, because their questions tend to be more specific and more advanced than the average free reader’s.

Still need help?

If your question is not covered above, I want to hear from you. Email [email protected] or use the form on the Contacts page. For deeper dividend research and subscriber-only ETF deep dives, join the paid Substack at https://getdividends.net/. For background on who is writing this and how, see the About Me, Editorial Process, Affiliate Disclosure, Privacy Policy, and Terms and Conditions pages.

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Risk disclaimer: Investing always involves the risk of losing your capital. Past performance and predictions do not guarantee future results. Do your own research and consider consulting a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.