Journal of Financial Planning: June 2012
Lazetta Rainey Braxton, CFP®, founded the financial planning firm Financial Fountains in Chicago, Illinois, after 12 years of work in accounting and financial services. She holds an M.B.A. in finance and entrepreneurship from the Wake Forest University Babcock Graduate School of Management.
In the February 2012 Journal of Financial Planning, life planning columnist Lewis J. Walker challenged practitioners to converse with clients about how financial resources support their dreams and life transitions. Clients will more willingly venture into these conversations when assured that the financial planning firm offers a safe space for exploring these sensitive details. Exercising due diligence, clients often examine whether the firm itself has clearly articulated and diligently pursued its purpose, values, and goals. A critical element of clients’ analysis is the firm’s name.
The firm’s name offers a window into the firm’s ethos. The origin of the name reinforces the firm’s purpose and gives the world a compelling reason to engage the firm. A trusting financial planner-client relationship develops when the firm demonstrates who it says it is by name and confirms its name through action. Every time the firm’s name enters into one’s thoughts, it should evoke the same inspiration and conviction that prompted the firm’s founding. Thus, the firm’s name must extend beyond its creation; the name should be embodied or “lived into” daily.
Name Power
Living into a name is an important concept for many cultures. For instance, some traditional African and Asian families spend several ceremonial days reflecting upon the name of a newborn child. They consider the proper naming of the child to be a sacred duty—the name shapes the child’s destiny and validates the child as a gift to the world. The family nurtures the child to embrace his or her uniqueness and to fulfill the meaning of the child’s name.
Similarly, founders of financial planning firms give birth to their commercial offspring with visions of how their entity will enhance people’s lives. The founders quickly realize that naming the firm represents the first step in transforming their concept into a professional reality. The name sets the foundation for communicating the firm’s purpose, values, and anticipated contributions to the wider community.
Living into a firm’s name requires founders to wrestle with the name until the bells of revelation ring out: “This is it!” This decisive moment shapes the firm’s future. Astute firms recognize that their name serves as an introduction and significantly influences first and lasting impressions. If chosen wisely and communicated effectively, the name invites interested parties into a hospitable space for exploring life-changing, partnership possibilities.
Living into a firm’s name also involves regenerative processes that keep the firm’s transactions aligned with its mission and beliefs. Essentially, the firm’s actions speak as loudly as the words in its name. The firm should ensure that the meaning of its name weaves throughout the fabric of the firm’s maturation. As a salient aspect of the branding process, the firm’s name can serve as a constant benchmark for professional integrity—encouraging harmony between the firm’s proclaimed beliefs and professional behavior.
Founders who haphazardly name their firms can unwittingly sow seeds of mistaken identity and mistrust. The lack of care in the naming process can permeate the firm’s interactions with others. In this scenario, founders often disregard their name and instead focus on what their firm can do. Many people, however, want to know what a firm is about before they engage a firm for what it can do for them.
Think about it. Who wants to enter a relationship with an organization that seems detached from its own identity? How can anyone get to know the firm better if the firm downplays its unique identity in the world? A compelling story surrounding the firm’s name—based on the firm’s own “life planning” goals—attracts lifelong partnerships; an unconvincing or ill-conceived story can prompt clients to go elsewhere.
Namesake Firms
Many financial planning firms extend their surname to their commercial offspring. In this case, the firm’s persona should represent a living manifestation of the founder’s guiding principles. This naming technique leverages relationships with those who are familiar with the founder. The inherent trust associated with the founder’s name sets the foundation for a viable client-planner relationship.
Management missteps by a founder of a namesake firm disrupt the livelihood of the founder, his or her family, and other affiliated parties. Take the case of Bernie Madoff. The public could not distinguish the misdeeds of Mr. Madoff from the deeds of his family. The Madoff name and brand quickly shriveled into misfortune. Compounding the issue was the frequently used term “made off”—implicating any adviser who fraudulently made off with investor funds.
Fortunately, most namesake firms build value for the founder’s family and the firm’s employees and constituencies. These firms position themselves for growth, mergers, and acquisitions. The key to expansion lies with protecting the brand from dilution and distortion. Proper succession planning addresses risk exposure by protecting the value and legacy of the brand.
Location-Inspired Firms
Founders who name their financial planning firms after a location capitalize on the affinity to community. Location-named firms must keenly discern the perceptions and expectations associated with the locale. Firms benefit when they translate the best of that location’s spirit into the firm’s ideals and life planning for the company.
Locally named financial planning firms appreciate the unwritten agreement to uphold the shared image of the community. Unwanted attention to the firm brings unwanted attention to the community. Many public officials have learned the hard way how quickly constituents will abandon them when those officials bring dishonor to a local community’s reputation. Financial firms should heed this example and strive diligently to enhance, not devalue, the community’s good name.
Concept-Based Firms
Some financial planning firms opt for a firm name that appeals to a concept or image. The name creates a vivid impression of the firm’s purpose and values. A strategically designed logo reinforces how the concept offers a solution to the needs the firm addresses.
Be advised that concepts and images are subject to interpretations influenced by experiences, culture, and convictions, to name a few. A founder’s best intentions in creating the firm’s name may welcome or isolate promising partners. Savvy founders engage focus groups to gauge the effectiveness of the concept or image in reflecting the intent and direction of the firm.
Whether the financial planning firm’s name is rooted in a founder’s name, a location, or a concept, the name should keep the firm and its employees grounded in its purpose and values throughout the firm’s transitions. The name sets an expectation and holds the firm accountable for delivering what the firm claims as its founding principles and expertise.
To test a financial planning firm’s success in living into its name, planners and employees should consider the following questions:
- Do I know the origin and intent of my firm’s name?
- Can I convincingly tell the story to others?
- Do our firm’s processes and communication strategies reflect the intent of our firm’s name?
- Does the intent of the firm’s name, mission, and values align with my passions?
- What thoughts come to my mind as I think of my firm’s name?
- Do the collective thoughts of my colleagues concerning our firm’s name correspond with the thoughts of our clients and other constituents?
- How can our firm build a better rapport with our clients by integrating the meaning of our firm’s name with our professional practices and the life plan of the company?
The firm and its employees should take seriously the firm’s name. It is a reminder of who the firm is and for what the firm stands. The name shapes the terms of engagement for those who consider or commit to partnering with the firm. So whether you are thinking about starting a new financial planning practice or already have an established company, carefully consider—as many of you already do with clients—how to develop a life plan that enables the firm to live up to its name.
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