Ben Gran – Forbes Advisor

Ben Gran believes in empowering people to understand their personal finances and maximize their money. He tries to help people become better informed about how banking works and how they can make better decisions and get the most out of their opportunities as bankers, savers and investors.

In addition to Forbes Advisor, Ben has written for The Motley Fool (The Ascent), Prudential, LendingTree, Bizee, regional banks, and various venture-backed technology startups. His ghostwriting for business leaders has appeared in publications such as Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and TechCrunch.

Ben Gran has been a full-time professional writer for most of his professional life. Before becoming a freelance writer, Ben worked as a technical compliance writer for a large national bank, an account manager for a marketing agency, and a speechwriter for former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who is now serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Joe Biden. While earning his bachelor’s degree from Rice University, Ben Gran interned at the Pentagon as a speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig.

Ben is an avid traveler, having lived in Japan (where he worked as an English teacher) and visited eleven countries. In addition to his native English, Ben speaks some Spanish and Japanese (but would like to be fluent in all three). Ben strives to bring a broad perspective to his writing projects with an inclusive spirit – whether writing about ending overdraft fees or how to help the unbanked access fairer, more affordable financial services.

Expertise

• Banking
• Personal finance
• Insurance
• Pension
• Investing
• Credit cards

Achievements

• Over 10 years of experience in financial journalism
• Covers banking, consumer finance, credit cards, economics, investing, insurance, and small business trends
• Work published by The Ascent (a Motley Fool service), Prudential, LendingTree and others

Other publications

Education

Rice University (B.A., History)