Clay D. Bellows, CPA/ABV/CFF, FMVA - President

Background: My life summarized in a few quick paragraphs. I have some roots in California. My grandparents and great grandparents lived in San Francisco. My parents lived in SF in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I was born in SF and raised in Marin County. I graduated from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley before heading down to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo for college. San Luis Obispo was a wonderful place to attend college, so I tried to extend my stay for as long as possible by living in a garden shed for $50 a month (not adjusted for inflation). Yes, a sheet metal garden shed covered in weeds sitting in the corner of my friend’s back yard. At this point, I was in my early 20’s and had about $1 left in my bank account. After making it through one very cold winter in the leaky shed I somewhat reluctantly came back to Marin for a quick stint doing accounting for a property management company. I quickly realized that I enjoyed a paycheck, cherished heating and insulation, and was intrigued with the world of accounting and finance. On a beautiful spring weekend in 2003, I attended a friend’s wedding which took place in the grass near the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. This certainly seemed like a beautiful place to live, so I took a job in Carmel, CA working at a regional CPA firm, which was part of the RSM network alliance. At this firm I was introduced to the world of valuation, litigation support, and tax. I was fascinated with helping small business owners and individuals, along with their legal counsel, navigate through complex financial matters. Eventually, I made my way back to SF to help with a sick family member and obtained a great job working in downtown SF at DZH Phillips (now Baker Tilly). In 2013, I ventured into the specialized bankruptcy and litigation support firm of Bachecki, Crom and Co., LLP where I became a partner. In 2019, I founded Outer Point Advisory, Inc. and haven’t looked back!

I am a licensed Certified Public Accountant and have worked in public accounting since 2003 valuing privately held businesses, providing forensic accounting services, and helping business owners with tax planning.  In addition to a CPA license, I have obtained specialty designations in the valuation and forensic accounting fields. My work experience includes a large number of litigation engagements to provide financial analysis, calculate economic damages, dissenting shareholder dispute advisory, determine solvency, and perform asset investigations and tracings.  I have valued over 250 closely-held businesses for acquisitions, buy-sell agreements, estate/gift taxes, succession planning, litigation support, and family law cases.  I also calculate valuation discounts for undivided interests in real property. I have extensive experience working with closely-held business owners and high-net-worth individuals on tax compliance and financial planning engagements. I have testified as an expert witness in California Superior Court.

Education: I received my bachelors in science in agbusiness with concentrations in both accounting and international business management from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA. In 1999, I also studied abroad at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia where I focused on tasting the local beers and wines.

Personal: I reside with my wonderful wife, 10-year-old daughter, and 3-year-old son. Whenever grandma is available to babysit, we take the occasional backpacking trip into the Sierra Nevada. We also enjoy traveling. I have visited all continents, except Antarctica (which is on the bucket list). My travels have included gasping for air while hiking over 18,000 foot-tall Himalayan mountain passes, spending well over $100 Euros ordering back-to-back espressos on a very cold and rainy day at a cafe in Paris, negotiating never ending traffic in Vietnam, spotting the elusive leopard on a self-drive safari in Namibia, wandering amongst the ruins at Machu Pichu, and admiring the majestic Taj Mahal at sunrise!!

Specialty areas:

  • Business Valuation

  • Forensic Accounting

  • Tax Planning

Member of:

  • American Institute of Certified Public Accountants - Forensic and Valuation Services Section

  • Marin County Bar Association - Affiliate Member

Obtained designations:

  • Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Licensed in the State of California (license #97628)

  • Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV), AICPA

  • Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF), AICPA

  • Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA), Corporate Finance Institute

Published articles:

Thanks for reading my Bio! I hope we can meet at some point. Click here to contact me for a meeting -> LINK.