Shook Research Rebrands as Veritant After Founder's $6 Million Forbes Payment

2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 15

Veritant is the new name Shook Research adopted after the rankings firm was rocked by revelations that founder RJ Shook secretly paid $6 million to Forbes’s top editor.
Annual audits and a new charter are central to the overhaul, which Chief Executive Molly Bennard said is meant to restore confidence in the independence of the firm’s wealth-adviser rankings.
Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo had already pulled out of the lucrative rankings, and the company suspended the lists entirely as it reviewed its business after the scandal surfaced in August.
Shook Research built an influential business over more than a decade by syndicating adviser rankings on Forbes.com and selling related marketing products, making the credibility of those lists central to its future.