Forrest Bell, CFP®

Forrest serves as the President of Bell Investment Advisors. He is also a Senior Investment Advisor and lead CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner. He heads Bell Investment Advisors’ Financial Planning team and serves on the Investment Committee. He assists clients with decisions that will help them plan for their children’s education and their own retirement; he helps them establish sustainable investment strategies and adequate insurance. Above all, his intention is to help clients create a clear path to all of their financial goals.

Forrest graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 1997 with a major in literature and earned his master’s degree in education in 1999 from Claremont Graduate University, where he was honored with the Peter Lincoln Spencer Fellowship, a prize awarded to the most promising and innovative teacher of that year’s graduating class. He spent seven years of his professional life as a teacher at the elementary and middle school levels.

While teaching, Forrest completed a two-year business professionals course and began his transition into financial services. He has found satisfaction transferring his teaching skill and ability to his roles as investment advisor and financial planner with both clients and staff. He believes Bell Investment Advisors promotes a sense of community among its employees, and he respects, admires, and has fun with his colleagues. He holds a Series 65 securities license and the official designation of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™. He joined the firm in 2005 and became the head of the Financial Planning Team in 2009. In 2015 he graduated from the Executive Leadership Program of Charles Schwab & Co.

Forrest and his wife, Rose Lynn, live in Berkeley with their two girls, Sofia (13) and Nora (8). The family keeps busy in the Berkeley Public Schools and in gymnastics, soccer, choir, and Philippine cultural dance. Forrest serves on the School Site Councils for Willard Middle School and Emerson Elementary School.

Forrest has a passion for basketball in general, the Warriors in particular, and loves reading books and the New Yorker. He takes life seriously, and has a great sense of humor about it.