Shook Research Rebrands as Veritant After Forbes Payment Scandal
The wealth adviser rankings firm accelerated a name change after its founder admitted to a secret $6 million payment to Forbes's top editor.
Shook Research, the firm widely known for producing rankings of wealth advisers published through Forbes, has rebranded itself as Veritant following a scandal involving its founder and a covert multimillion-dollar payment to a senior Forbes editor.
The company sped up its rebranding timeline after Shook Research's founder acknowledged making a secret $6 million payment to the top editor at Forbes, a disclosure that raised serious questions about the integrity of the rankings the two organizations jointly produced. The nature and purpose of such a payment drew immediate scrutiny from the financial advisory industry, which relies heavily on those rankings for credibility and business development.
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The Forbes rankings in question carry significant weight in the wealth management sector, where advisers and their firms use placements to attract high-net-worth clients. The revelation of an undisclosed financial relationship between the rankings producer and a key editorial gatekeeper undermined the independence those rankings are presumed to represent.
The decision to accelerate the rebranding under the Veritant name appears aimed at distancing the company from reputational damage linked to its founder's admission. Whether the name change will be sufficient to restore confidence among financial advisers and consumers who use the rankings as a guide remains an open question for the industry.
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