AN INVESTMENT and wealth management firm that was bought out by the staff is branching out with a new name.

Cripps Portfolio of Tunbridge Wells is now known as Heartwood Wealth Management.

It manages and administers more than £650million of funds for private clients, trusts and charities.

The name Heartwood means the core of a tree. Clients said it conveyed strength, integrity, reliability, dependability and growth.

The rebranding, which uses a logo of tree rings surrounding a heartwood and images of trees and forests, will highlight what the firm claims is its innovative approach to wealth management.

Heartwood is marking its new name by giving support to the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity.

It will pay for the planting of 650 trees, one for each million pounds the firm manages. It will also plant an extra tree whenever it adds a further million pounds over the next three years.

At the end of last year, bosses and staff bought the company that emerged in 1988 from law firm Cripps Harries Hall.

Heartwood employs 70 staff and provides wealth management services for the well-off. These include investment, tax, retirement and estate planning.

As well as Tunbridge Wells, Heartwood operates from offices in London, Lewes and Southampton.

David Lough, Heartwood’s founding chief executive, said: "We chose Heartwood because our clients told us it best sums up what we mean to them – strength and dependability.

"At the same time, we decided to follow the core name by Wealth Management instead of Portfolio because we are much more than an investment firm.

"Our reputation for combining investment and tax advisory skills for families is the key cornerstone of our offering and we want to convey this wider role in the new name."