Shook Research Changes Name to Veritant After Forbes Scandal
- Shook Research, the wealth-adviser ranking racket, changes name to Veritant after founder's $6M bribe to Forbes editor goes public.
- Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo flee the rankings; company suspends the list, pretends an 'audit' and new charter will make it all smell like roses.
- CEO Molly Bennard says they 'needed to take a beat' — sure, a beat to scrub the stench off the letterhead.
- New name from Latin 'veritas' — because nothing says 'integrity' like a PR firm's dictionary dive after a scandal.
- Forbes loses its cash cow, but the rebranded Veritant keeps selling logos to any adviser with a pulse and a checkbook.
Brief Summary
In a move that screams 'we're not corrupt anymore, we just renamed the corruption,' Shook Research has become Veritant — a neologism crafted from 'veritas' to lend an air of Harvard-approved purity to a company caught paying its biggest editorial partner a cool $6 million under the table. The founder, RJ Shook, apparently believed the quickest way to a top ranking was a direct deposit to Forbes' top editor, which is less 'Consumer Reports' and more 'consumer fraud.'
Why This Matters
For the average reader, this is a delightful exercise in corporate gymnastics: watch a company redefine its entire identity to escape the consequences of its own greed, then slap a 'truth' label on it like a clearance sticker. The real lesson here is that 'independent rankings' in finance are often just a pay-to-play playground, and this rebranding is a shiny new fence painted over a rotten barn.