Seven Tips for a Firm Name Prospects Won’t Forget

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Having named the three children I brought into this world, I know how hard it is. No financial advisor wants to make the mistake of choosing the wrong moniker and then living with that stigma for the rest of your company’s life. But on the flip side, most firm names are so bland and nondescript that it’s like having no name at all. There’s zero brand identity.

Here are seven tips to give your advisory firm a name that means something.

1. Don’t use a nature reference

Example: Blackrock

These are the worst offenders of a deplorable #financialcliche that afflicts every advisor website and marketing brochure.

Somewhere along the line, somebody decided that the easiest way to avoid alienation is to name your firm after an inanimate object like trees, rocks or hills. It’s like how every financial advisor website has a picture of a retired couple at the beach or on a boat.

I never knew that financial advisors were such nature lovers! I love hiking, too.

Not a bad strategy in theory, but it’s so overdone that there’s no way to separate yourself from the next tree or rock. Blackrock did it, but ever since then everybody has overused this trend and it’s become very bland.

2. Forget acronyms

The world is so sick of financial acronyms, from 401k to IRA to GRAT, GST and more. Spare us all from the creation of one more #financialcliche.

3. Avoid naming it after yourself

This works well if you have an interesting name that can provoke conversation. When I was in the advisory business, I called my firm Grillo Investments, which was tremendously satisfying for my ego! However it wasn’t a great choice. Nobody knew “Grillo.” I’m not a famous person like Fisher Investments. It didn’t do anything for me because it didn’t mean anything.

4. Invented names usually won’t work

Examples: Google, Ikea

These names are definitely not conservative by design and will not work for the traditional belt-and-suspenders shop. If your marketing department is fortunate enough to get this one through, make sure your company and the clients you’re targeting won’t be turned off.

This can be very hit or miss. Make sure it’s a hit by asking a peer group, a sample smattering of clients and a few centers-of-influence before you click “buy” on the GoDaddy website and waste the $9.99.

5. Sidestep foreign names

Examples: Cerebus, Kynikos

Latin or Greek are the best choices as they give off a classical feeling. These are creative words and because they are out of the ordinary they may spark interest.

The downside to these names is that there are not intuitively obvious. You’ll get the occasional lover of the Iliad or Odyssey who knows who Patroclus was, but other than that it won’t mean anything to the average person. You’ll spend a good deal of time and possibly money explaining it.

There could be some regulatory pushback, too. I remember the first company I ever started was called “Loba Solitaria.” This means “lone female wolf” in Spanish (this happened way before I met Antonio, my partner, in my “wild single” days). When I tried to register it as an Llc I got a letter from the New York State regulators saying that I had to include a detailed explanation of what the term meant in English and I had to resubmit the whole application. I guess the hassle was justified because it could have meant all sorts of awful things; how did they know what the word meant? I could have been talking about guns and drugs. Anyways, it slowed down the process considerably and I eventually gave it up in favor of a more palatable name in English.

6. Try location names

Example: Bank of America

These are great, bu very underutilized. Even if you name your firm after the street where your first office was, the name still works if it’s an interesting name. It should somehow tie into what you are all about. Kind of like, “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?”

Choose a fascinating name or place; that way it can be intriguing and tell a story. This is the essence of brand identity – the story that your name tells.

7. Evocative names are a challenge

Example: Fidelity Investments

The good thing about an evocative name is that it describes the experience the user will have. In this way it is able to relate back to the firm’s purpose or mission.

The problem is that all the cool evocative names (that would make sense for a financial advisor) are taken. Assurance, security, independence, etc. There’s an opportunity for those creative, clever types who can unearth some quality that the industry has missed.

General guidelines

Whatever type of name you choose, here are a few things to keep in mind.

The name should reflect the quality of your firm that best represents the user experience, or better said, what you want the user to envision themselves experiencing if they choose you.

Get a group of people to review the name before you make any final decisions. It’s easy to fall in love with your cooking and the last thing you want to do is lock into something that is a mess to unravel.

As much as I encourage creativity, don’t go with anything too flashy. You’re not selling trendy internet services. You want to be “tastefully different” so while I am all in favor of making a bold impression, be wary of anything that makes you seem too frivolous.

Some companies that operate as a part of a larger broker-dealer ask me if they should name their group so that they have more identity than “Raymond James” or “Merrill Lynch.” Do it if you can think of a name that carries enough brand. But if it’s going to be some #financialcliche then don’t bother.

The name should be three or four words long. Anything longer and it sounds like a law firm. Anything shorter and it sounds like an instant messaging app or some tech firm.

Want to know what I think of your firm name? Email me and I’ll give you my honest feedback – or post your suggestion on APViewpoint and get feedback from the on-line community.

Sara Grillo, CFA, is a top financial writer with a focus on marketing and branding for investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor and worked at Lehman Brothers. Sara graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature and has an MBA from NYU Stern in Quantitative Finance.