COOKEVILLE – Father and son Rick and Trey Bellar have deep roots in the Upper Cumberland. There’s the Smith County farm that’s been in the family for more than a century and a half. Rick and Trey are direct descendants of Ned Cowen, a long hunter who is thought to be the first settler in what is now Putnam County.
That legacy also comes into play professionally. The two recently joined forces as financial advisors to form the Bellar Wealth Management team.
For Rick, the story starts in the late ‘70s, during his days working for a heating and air conditioning company in Nashville, where he landed after college. While manning a home show booth one spring, Rick met a drug representative who gave him a promising stock tip. Rick admits he didn’t know anything about the market. His dad, who invested with J.C. Bradford & Co., lent him some money to try it out. It turns out the tip was legit. The stock went up – Bellar made a couple thousand dollars.
That’s all it took, he says. He was hooked.
“I liked it a lot,” Rick said. “I liked it so much that I interviewed with J.C. Bradford and got a job working downtown at their home office in Nashville.”
When J.C. Bradford later made plans to open a new office in Cookeville, Rick and his wife decided to take a chance on the small town. Bellar’s grandparents had a farm in Buffalo Valley, which has been in the family for more than 150 years, and liked the idea of being close by – especially with a son, Trey, on the way.
The Cookeville office opened in October of 1978. Rick rose to branch manager. In 2000, J.C. Bradford was acquired by PaineWebber. A few months later, PaineWebber turned over to UBS Financial Services, where Rick now serves as a financial advisor.
“We went from a small regional firm in J.C. Bradford to one of the largest wealth managers in the world with UBS,” Rick said of the deal. “We had a lot more investment platforms to work from and worldwide research,” he added. “(UBS) has deep pockets for technology upgrades, plus the name recognition. You can go anywhere in the world and find out how your accounts are doing.”
Earlier this year, Trey joined the UBS fold, too, forming Bellar Wealth Management, one of three family-centric teams now within the Cookeville UBS office, including the Taylor and Yother Wealth Management groups. Trey, a 2003 University of Tennessee-Knoxville graduate, has been in the financial services industry for seven years, serving in various positions. Having essentially grown up in the business, he says he was always intrigued by it.
“When I began working in the financial industry, my father had already been helping clients for 30 years,” Trey said. “I can recall vividly the October of 1987 crash. I grew up sitting next to dad every week watching ‘Wall Street Week’ with Louis Rukeyser. I’ve had insight that a lot of people my age just haven’t been privy to. The timing was right for us to join up.”
“I don’t have any plans to retire, but for my clients, I wanted them to be comfortable knowing that their assets will continue to be managed,” Rick added. “The best way to do that was to have somebody that I trusted and knew the business.”
Bellar Wealth Management invests funds on a mostly discretionary basis through the UBS Portfolio Management Program, which enable clients to delegate the day-to- day investment decisions, for retirement accounts, corporate accounts and families.
The rest is all about relationships, the Bellars say.
“We don’t have a niche market; a lot of companies are moving toward that. We prefer to work with all different clients. It’s a relationship business,” Trey said. “We really pride ourselves in giving the best service.”
“If I learned anything during my years in the Army, it was discipline. Managing money requires discipline and knowledge,” Rick added. “Since I began, I’ve seen the stock market go down 50 percent three times. History has shown that taking a long-term view can lead to successful investing, even through that kind of volatility.
“As advisors, you’re not just there for the good times. It’s through the bad times that you need to lead your clients through that battlefield.”
Rick and Trey Bellar are financial advisors at UBS
Financial Services, 115 N. Washington Ave., Cookeville.
For more information, call (931) 528-5426 or (931) 260-9796.
As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, we offer both investment advisory and brokerage services. These services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate contracts. For more information on the distinctions between our brokerage and investment advisory services, speak with your financial advisor or visit our website at ubs.com/working with us. Portfolio Management Program (PMP) is a wrap fee advisory program in which our financial advisors manage client accounts on a discretionary basis. PMP is designed for clients who (i) want to delegate portfolio management discretion to their financial advisor; (ii) are look- ing to implement a medium to long-term investment plan; and (iii) prefer the consistency of fee-based pricing. PMP is not appropriate for clients who: (i) want to maintain trading control over their account; (ii) seek a short-term investment; (iii) want to maintain con- sistently high levels of cash, money market funds, or invest primarily in no-load mutual funds; (iv) want to maintain highly concentrated positions that will not be sold regardless of market conditions; or (v) who anticipate significant withdrawals from the account. UBS Financial Services inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.
