The Advisor and Founder

My name is Dustin Bell. I founded Reflective Financial because I love this work — the math, the strategy, and the people. Money and life decisions in the years around retirement are some of the most important decisions a person makes. Helping clients get them right and build meaningful lives is the most fulfilling job I’ve had.

Before Reflective Financial

I’ve spent my career being the person responsible when the numbers had to be right.

I’m a former CFO and COO — payroll, budgets, accounting, long-term planning, and the weight of knowing real people depended on the decisions. I was a strategy executive at a Fortune 50 company, building analytically complex, high-consequence business plans. Earlier, I was an investment portfolio manager and assistant controller at a commercial bank. I’m also an entrepreneur who has launched two businesses, including this one.

When you hand someone responsibility for your life savings, you’re not hiring a salesperson; you’re hiring judgment. Mine was built managing real organizations, real budgets, and real consequences.

Credentials

I’m a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. I hold an MBA and passed the Series 65 Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam. Reflective Financial is a fiduciary, fee-only Registered Investment Advisor — I never sell products, and I never accept commissions or referral fees.

Why flat-fee, and why this specialization

I built this firm around two convictions.

First, the two decades around retirement are high consequence and high opportunity. The tax planning, the income design, the Social Security and Medicare decisions, the shift from growing a portfolio to living on one — this is a different discipline than general financial advice, and it rewards specialization and expertise.

Second, the standard industry fee model has the math backwards. A percentage of your assets means your advisor’s pay rises with your portfolio, not with the work. I’d rather charge a flat fee and let my incentives sit on your side of the table.

Off the clock

I live in Highlands Ranch with my wife of 25+ years — a Colorado public school teacher — and our two daughters. When I’m not working, you’ll often find me trail running, hiking, or on some other adventure in the mountains.