Shook Research Changes Name to Veritant After Forbes Scandal

The financial data firm Shook Research found itself in the headlines this summer after its founder secretly paid $6 million to the top editor of Forbes, one of the company’s key partners.Major financial firms like Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo stopped participating in the company’s lucrative rankings of wealth advisers for fear of being tarnished by association.Shook Research then suspended the rankings entirely while it conducted a review of its business.Now, the company is hoping to move on from the turmoil with a new name — Veritant — and a promise to conduct annual audits of its wealth adviser rankings.

It will also publish a new charter to emphasize the independence and sanctity of its lists.“The reality is we needed to take a beat to let the dust settle a little bit,” said Molly Bennard, the company’s chief executive.“We needed to do that to regain confidence and to get ourselves organized,” she added.The new name, a neologism derived from veritas (Latin for truth, and the motto of Harvard), was selected after a monthslong process that was originally planned to conclude at the end of the year, Ms.Bennard said.

But when the founder’s payment became public in August, the company decided to speed up the rebranding.Founded more than a decade ago by RJ Shook and his wife, Liz, Shook Research became the Consumer Reports of wealth whisperers, syndicating its influential list on Forbes.com and selling logos, plaques and online profiles that allowed wealth advisers to advertise their spot on the list.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....