And puts a brave face on the change, calling it a sign of its independence. Minneapolis-based Touchstone Investment Consultants has renamed itself Allodium Investment Consultants in order, it tells us, to highlight its "status as an independent investment consulting firm."

An allodium is "land held by somebody without any feudal obligation of rent, service, or other duty to an overlord," according to Encarta's online dictionary.

Marketing v. reality

Touchstone -- that is, Allodium -- believes that the concept of allodium represents the "philosophical foundation of the firm's fiercely independent approach to investment advice."

Allodium's CEO Dave Bromelkamp figures the new name speaks to the "great demand for objective investment advice and that both individual and institutional investors are seeking out independent investment advisory firms to obtain unbiased investment advice," he says in a 28 December 2006 press release. "We established a firm that is independent of the banks and the brokerage firms and this allows our investment consultants to be truly objective when providing investment advice to our clients."

But a phone call to Allodium elicited a different version of the name-change story. Allodium spokeswoman Cristy Faltinosky says Cincinnati, Ohio-based Touchstone Investments asked the firm to change its name, and it agreed to -- primarily to avoid litigation. It arrived at "allodium" with the help of a marketing firm, but only after searches revealed that its other choices had been taken by other registered investment advisories (RIAs).

There are six RIAs with "touchstone" as the first word in their names, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Allodium manages or advises on about $103 million in private and institutional client assets according to its most recent ADV filing with the SEC. Touchstone Investments manages about $7.6 billion. -FWR

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