The Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy has prohibited an accounting firm from changing the name of one of its offices to include the name of the late co-founder and president.
Donna Stephens died in January 2013, and the management team at her firm, Bell & Company, had renamed the office in Conway, Ark., to Stephens, Bell & Company in her honor, according to a local news site, the
However, when the firm filed a renewal application with the state accountancy board to officially change the name, the board turned down the request. One of the rules in the state board’s Professional Code of Conduct requires any partner listed in the firm name to be living or to have been a partner of the company prior to passing.
“In our case, we did not have the pleasure of partnering with Donna prior to her passing and therefore we are prohibited from using her name,” said the firm.
The firm informed its clients in a