Produced By: Ensombl
Professionalism and ethics are the cornerstones of any enduring enterprise. In the realm of financial advice—where success depends on trust, expertise, and a commitment to doing right by clients—these qualities are more than just business principles; they are moral imperatives. In this article, we delve into the journey of Bell Partners Wealth Creation (part of the broader Bell Partners Australia group), as related by Managing Partner Brett Taggart in conversation with host Andrew Rocks. From humble beginnings and early missteps in college to leading a nationwide network of financial advisory offices, Brett’s story illuminates how a commitment to professionalism, ethical conduct, and community-mindedness can drive both personal fulfillment and business success.
Many financial planners trace their passion to early revelations of how money and investing work. Yet for Brett Taggart, the start was not so straightforward. Born into a family of tradespeople—his father was a bricklayer—Brett initially saw little of the corporate or financial worlds. His first foray into higher education at Newcastle University was more social than academic, culminating in two passes and two fails. Reflecting on it now, he recognizes that his father’s displeasure and the realization that he could not squander his chance at a future beyond the construction site forced him to take stock.
Despite first-year stumbles, Brett’s time at Newcastle University sparked an interest in economics and the possibilities of banking, finance, and wealth creation. The early 1990s were a very different period. The internet was nascent; email was not in mainstream use; communication was by fax or phone. Yet the fundamental concepts of investing and retirement planning were beginning to filter into everyday conversation. When Brett graduated in 1994, he found an industry on the heels of a bond-market crash, making entry-level work in finance scarce. Yet he pressed on with an internship-turned-employment opportunity under the mentorship of Rick McCosker—a name many will recognize as the Australian Test cricketer famous for batting with a broken jaw in the Centenary Test. As Brett recalls, he spent months effectively as an unpaid “para-planner,” learning the intricacies of creating financial plans and assisting senior advisors.
After gaining some grounding, Brett returned to Sydney, joining National Mutual Financial Planning (later rebranded as Charter Financial Planning under AXA). He spent a year in Sydney working with a panel of 60–70 advisors, honing his skills in para-planning and client-services support. This experience, while modest in compensation, was invaluable in teaching him how to navigate large networks, deliver advice in a compliant manner, and appreciate the rigors of building trust in a profession that lives or dies by it. Gradually, he completed the DFP (Diploma of Financial Planning) and later CFP (Certified Financial Planner) qualifications—both of which were considered high standards in the advice landscape of that time.
He subsequently partnered with David Brown (of what would become Stanford Brown) in Sydney’s Neutral Bay, learning not only the craft of providing financial advice but also the ‘1 percenters’ of how to succeed. Attention to personal presentation, reliability, punctuality, clarity in documentation, thorough research, and a commitment to the client’s best interest became part of Brett’s everyday practice. Such lessons about professional conduct, he says, remain essential to success and form the bedrock of ethical engagement with clients: the small details—no matter how trivial they may appear—make a great deal of difference in building trust.
A pivotal moment in Brett’s career came through a client connection recommending him to Anthony Bell, founder of the accounting firm Bell Partners. Anthony recognized the need to integrate financial advisory services into a broader accounting practice. Rather than referring out to third parties, Bell Partners could offer an in-house service—Bell Partners Wealth Creation—so that clients seeking accounting and tax planning would no longer leave the office to find a separate professional for their investing or insurance needs.
This approach aligned with Brett’s vision that accountants, deeply trusted by many Australians, could be natural conduits for wealth advice. Accountants frequently have insight into an individual’s or family’s entire financial picture. This synergy between accounting and financial planning was a major driver of Bell Partners’ success. But with synergy and opportunity also comes responsibility. In multi-disciplinary practices, lines of communication can blur, and it is critical that the focus remain firmly on ethical and transparent practices. Ensuring that the accountant and the financial planner put the client’s best interest first can avoid conflicts of interest that were rife in the industry in earlier times.
By 2005, Brett and his colleagues believed that the best way to preserve true independence and put clients first was to have their own Australian Financial Services License (AFSL). Rather than sit under the ownership of a life insurance company or institutional licensee (which might have led to pressures to recommend certain products), Bell Partners Wealth Creation would operate under its own authority. Professional integrity and ethical advice were the guiding stars: the firm’s advisors would be wholly accountable to clients, without bias from a parent institution.
For many professionals who came of age in metropolitan centers, the natural path is to remain in those big cities, building a client base and a network in that particular environment. Yet Brett, who originally hailed from Tamworth in rural New South Wales, felt that there might be a better quality of life—and a deeper professional impact—away from the bustle of Sydney. Having already worked tirelessly for two decades in large urban markets, he noticed that commuting was eroding the time he could spend with his wife and two children. Moreover, he realized that many rural and regional Australians rarely gained easy access to the level of professional financial advisory service one might find in the heart of Sydney or Melbourne.
In 2018, just before the onset of the pandemic, Brett relocated back to Tamworth, reacquainting himself with the quiet, spacious surroundings he had grown to love. Though it initially seemed an unlikely base for an Australia-wide financial advice firm, the approach quickly bore fruit. The region had many small and medium-sized business owners—exactly the type of clientele that often lacks time and specialized knowledge to manage finances and investments. Clients valued Bell Partners’ hallmark focus on urgency, responsiveness, and thoroughness. Remote conferencing tools, while still not as widespread as they would become in the COVID-19 era, made it feasible for Brett to continue overseeing the firm’s broader network of offices along the eastern seaboard, in Brisbane, Port Macquarie, Newcastle, Sydney, and Canberra.
When the pandemic arrived and made remote working mainstream, the barriers for advisors living regionally but serving clients nationwide decreased even further. This shift underscored that professional excellence does not require an office in Sydney’s CBD or Melbourne’s Southbank. An advisor in a regional setting can offer equal—if not better—service by capitalizing on technology, a deep focus on continuing education, and the same ethical standards demanded in the big cities.
Today, Bell Partners stands as a multi-disciplinary conglomerate offering accounting, wealth creation (financial planning), finance (loans), legal services, and general insurance under one umbrella. Each segment has dedicated partners and staff, yet collaboration is encouraged so clients can resolve multiple financial matters in a single interaction. Within the wealth creation arm alone, there are some 15 Authorized Representatives managing more than 1,000 family groups around Australia. Advisors receive comprehensive administrative support—most notably through outsourced para-planning—so they can devote more time to face-to-face client work, analysis, and strategy formulation.
For any financial planning firm, compliance is at once an ethical obligation and a logistical challenge. Statement of Advice requirements, ongoing disclosure obligations, and best-interest duty have all grown more exacting over the decades. Bell Partners addresses this by separating tasks: staff specialized in compliance and documentation ensure that no corners are cut. Freed from the admin treadmill, advisors can maintain a higher standard of client care. Moreover, with an in-house AFSL, the firm can be more agile and personal in responding to potential concerns or compliance questions. There is no parent institution with competing interests. This structure both enhances professional integrity and fosters an environment where staff constantly communicate about best practices in ethics and compliance.
Professionalism requires not just individual virtue but also systems that help employees stay aligned with the firm’s ethos. A key theme in Bell Partners’ approach is recognizing that an advice firm cannot thrive without the synergy of all members. Advisors might earn the headlines, but it is the administrators, compliance specialists, office coordinators, and back-office professionals who keep the wheels turning.
Bell Partners invests heavily in training and personal development. The business holds two Professional Development (PD) days each year for its advisors. These sessions combine technical updates, ethical guidelines, and a chance to discuss real-world case studies that highlight moral dilemmas. Additionally, the firm sets aside time specifically for “high-performance” training. This is not the typical PD day fare of product presentations. Instead, it involves psychologists, leadership coaches, and even Special Forces personnel who instruct on mental resilience, discipline, and strategic planning under pressure. Everyone in the company has a chance to learn advanced coping and decision-making skills—essential in an industry that thrives on trust and cool-headedness.
Recognizing that day-to-day life can be stressful, the firm also attempts to meet employees halfway with flexible work arrangements. In some major cities, the commute can consume hours. Brett’s mantra is that as long as people exhibit personal responsibility and complete their tasks, they may work from home when needed. That said, the team sees enormous value in in-office collaboration. Weekly or fortnightly meeting rhythms—sometimes at a citywide level, sometimes discipline-wide—are designed to align staff and ensure no one is “flying blind.” Structured conversations with administrative support staff, for example, allow the senior leadership to hear unvarnished truths about what is happening with client servicing. Such an approach underscores the firm’s stance that honest communication and accountability are non-negotiable aspects of ethical practice.
Ethics in business is not confined to how one treats clients or employees. It also manifests in commitment to the community at large. Bell Partners exemplifies this through the Loyal Foundation, established by Anthony Bell and supported by Brett and the broader team. Over the past 15 years, the Loyal Foundation has raised over $6 million for charitable causes, focusing primarily on supporting children’s health by donating vital medical equipment to more than 100 hospitals across Australia.
One of the Loyal Foundation’s best-known ventures is in the sailing world. Bell Partners famously campaigned supermaxi yachts in the annual Sydney-to-Hobart race, often finishing at or near the top. This sportsmanship not only brought the brand widespread attention but also served a greater good: each campaign aimed to raise significant funds to supply local hospitals with cutting-edge pediatric equipment. It is the philanthropic counterpart to the firm’s professional ethic: if you operate with integrity, place high performance at the center, and respect your community, everyone wins. In addition, the Loyal Foundation is run with minimal administrative overhead, ensuring that nearly all funds raised go to the cause itself—something many donors and supporters prize highly.
Financial advice, particularly for small-business owners and self-employed professionals, is evolving at breakneck speed. Technology is reshaping everything from meeting transcription to portfolio design. Clients, too, are far better informed and more conscious of costs, transparency, and conflict of interest than they were in the 1990s.
Bell Partners addresses these market shifts in multiple ways:
Ethical conduct in financial services is more than compliance checklists. It arises from deeply ingrained personal and organizational values. Brett repeatedly emphasizes that advisors must first listen carefully to what clients want and then marry that with their technical expertise. Clients do not pay for large, unwieldy documents—they pay for intellectual capital. They pay for the insight, the advice, and the relationship that helps them structure their finances for life’s big events.
This means that every advisor, from the newly qualified to the most senior, must continuously reflect on whether their recommendations are truly in the client’s best interest. Independence from product manufacturers helps, but independence alone does not ensure good service. The culture of an organization must reinforce transparency and sincerity in all interactions.
To maintain accountability, Bell Partners organizes separate, regular meetings between advisors and the administrative teams, giving staff license to speak freely about any challenges or discrepancies in their workload. If an advisor claims they have a full diary, or multiple new business leads, the administrative team can confirm or refute it. By eliminating guesswork, the firm avoids overpromising and underdelivering. This can be pivotal in an industry where one slip can erode hard-won trust. Holding each person in the firm accountable for the promises they make fosters a “check and balance” mechanism that goes far beyond standard compliance.
Bell Partners also promotes the professional growth of each staff member. Younger advisors are mentored by senior professionals, guided through in-house training, and immersed in real client scenarios early in their careers. The principle is that if junior employees see firsthand the ethical and professional stance of the leaders, they will adopt similar values in their own professional identity. This passing of the torch—from those steeped in the industry’s past to those shaping its future—is essential for sustaining an ethical culture.
An unwavering ethical framework and consistent professional behavior might sound lofty or even expensive. Yet Brett’s experience underscores how they are, in fact, deeply pragmatic:
Brett’s concluding vision for financial advice is telling. After nearly three decades in the industry, he sees a kind of return to the simplicity that underpinned advice in the 1980s, albeit with modern technology and regulatory checks. Rather than burying clients in complex Statements of Advice or endless disclaimers, the true differentiator is personal connection and clarity. Clients come with a problem—perhaps they want to protect their family, grow their assets, or exit their business—and the advisor’s role is to diagnose and recommend. Technology can handle much of the documentation, but the human element is indispensable for understanding nuances and forging empathy.
The conversation in Tamworth’s Bell Partners office illustrates that there is no single “geographic secret” to building a thriving financial services group. The same principles that fueled success in Sydney—professionalism, ethics, integrated services—apply in regional centers. If anything, the impetus for robust, client-first culture may be stronger in a rural community, where professional relationships intertwine with personal ones, and reputations spread by word of mouth.
The story of Bell Partners Wealth Creation, guided by Managing Partner Brett Taggart and founded in partnership with Anthony Bell, is a testament to how professional rigor and ethical action reinforce one another. From an earnest but uncertain start at Newcastle University to establishing a major, multi-office firm covering the eastern seaboard of Australia, Brett’s journey highlights the importance of never losing sight of professional standards and moral conduct.
Employees, clients, and the community at large have all benefited from Bell Partners’ integrated business model, transparent fee structures, robust compliance, philanthropic endeavors, and a relentless drive to do right by clients. Whether it is in a bustling metropolis or a quiet town overlooking the Northwest Slopes and Plains, financial advice done well and ethically can transform lives.
Bell Partners’ continued expansion, methodical recruitment approach, and consistent professional training validate that success grows hand in hand with an unwavering commitment to an ethical, client-centered mission. Their example stands as both a model and an encouragement: for professionals in the financial services sector, there is no limit to what can be built when you fuse expertise with integrity—and remember, always, to place the client’s best interests at the heart of everything you do.
Accreditation Points Allocation:
0.10 Technical Competence
0.10 Client Care and Practice
0.10 Regulatory Compliance and Consumer Protection
0.10 Professionalism and Ethics
0.40 Total CPD Points