Alana Benson

Lead Writer  |  Socially responsible investing, financial advice, long-term investing

Alana Benson is an investing writer who joined NerdWallet in 2019. She covers a wide variety of investing topics including socially responsible and ESG investing, cryptocurrency, mutual funds, HSAs and financial advice. She is also a frequent contributor to NerdWallet's "Smart Money" podcast. Alana has appeared on FOX Houston and the "PennyWise" podcast and has been quoted in MarketWatch and The Sun. Before joining NerdWallet, she wrote two books on identity theft and several young adult nonfiction titles. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, MSN, Yahoo Finance and MarketWatch. She is based in Lander, Wyoming.

  • Education: Dual B.A. in English and classical civilizations from the University of Vermont
  • Previous experience: Writer at LexisNexis, writer at Rosen Publishing, writer at the Lander Journal

Featured video

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How to Avoid Greenwashing in Your Investments

Not every company is genuine in its pursuits of a cleaner planet or more equitable society. And making false or misleading claims about “greenness” can affect investor trust. Sonya Dreizler joins us with our investing expert Alana Benson to decode greenwashing and provide tools to help you find out if your investments are truly "green." Sonya has nearly 20 years of experience, 14 of those being in traditional finance, and about five consulting in ESG and responsible investing topics.

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Quotes and interviews

Other publications

The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Entrepreneur magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Nasdaq, The Seattle Times, Chicago Sun-Times

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