About AdvoraHQ

Independent Research on Finance, Insurance, and Law — Built on Primary Sources

The Person Behind AdvoraHQ

My name is Daniel Hayes. I am the founder and sole researcher behind this publication.

I am in my forties. I did not come to finance through a university program or a career in banking. I came to it the way serious readers often do — through a problem I could not find a straight answer to.

Years ago, facing a financial decision that had real legal and tax consequences, I discovered that almost every source I could find was either vague, incomplete, or quietly wrong. The blog posts contradicted each other. The “expert” articles cited other articles rather than actual law. So I went to the source documents myself — IRS publications, state statutes, court opinions — and I kept reading.

That habit became a discipline. The discipline became this site.

What I Cover — and Why These Three Areas

AdvoraHQ focuses on three interconnected areas where the gap between what people think they know and what the source documents actually say is widest:

These three areas overlap constantly. A medical event creates an insurance claim, a legal dispute, and a tax consequence simultaneously. Understanding all three together is the only way to give readers accurate, complete information.

How Research Works Here

Every factual claim published on AdvoraHQ traces back to a primary source I have read in full. The primary sources I work from include:

• IRS publications, revenue rulings, and revenue procedures — read directly from IRS.gov, not from summaries
• Internal Revenue Code sections — read from the U.S. Code directly
• State legislation and regulatory filings — full bill text from state legislative databases
• Federal and state court opinions — complete rulings, not news coverage of rulings
• SEC filings — 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and proxy statements directly from EDGAR
• Insurance policy documents and state insurance department filings
• Peer-reviewed academic work on tax law, insurance economics, and public finance

This approach is slower than the typical content workflow. It is also the reason this site exists. You can read more about how articles are selected, researched, and reviewed on the Our Methodology page.

What AdvoraHQ Is Not

AdvoraHQ is a research and information publication. It is not a law firm, a licensed financial advisory practice, or an insurance brokerage. Nothing published here constitutes legal advice, financial advice, or insurance advice for your specific situation.

The goal of every article is to give you accurate, source-verified information so that you can have an informed conversation with a licensed professional — or make a better-informed decision on your own. If a topic requires professional guidance, articles will say so directly.

Editorial Standards and Corrections

AdvoraHQ maintains a public Corrections Log. When an error is identified — whether by a reader or through my own review — it is corrected and logged publicly with the date and nature of the change.

Affiliate relationships, where they exist, are disclosed fully on the Affiliate Disclosure page. Compensation never determines which products are recommended or how they are evaluated.

You can read the full editorial standards, research process, and conflict-of-interest policies on the Editorial Policy page.

Find Daniel Hayes Online

I maintain a presence on several platforms where I write about finance, insurance, and consumer law topics:

• Quora
• Medium
• Substack
• X (Twitter)
• About.me