CPA. Former CFO. Founder.
Allan Bell is a CPA, financial executive, entrepreneur, and the founder of The BAG Index.
Allan has more than 30 years of finance and operating experience, including more than two decades in corporate CFO leadership roles. His background spans financial planning and analysis, accounting, strategic finance, operations, private-equity portfolio leadership, mergers and acquisitions, nonprofit financial management, and business transformation.
Allan earned his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and his bachelor's degree in accounting from Butler University. He is a licensed CPA in Michigan and Georgia and previously earned the Certified Management Accountant designation.
Throughout his career, Allan repeatedly observed that people were often expected to make consequential financial decisions before receiving the practical education necessary to evaluate those decisions. The rapid expansion of digital payments, consumer credit, student debt, investing platforms, entrepreneurship, and NIL opportunities has made early financial preparation even more important.
He created The BAG Index to translate complex financial concepts into practical, accessible, measurable learning experiences that students can understand, apply, and build upon throughout their lives.
- CPA — Michigan & Georgia
- CMA — Certified Management Accountant
- MBA — Kellogg, Northwestern University
- BS Accounting — Butler University
- 30+ years finance leadership
- Corporate CFO experience
- Private-equity portfolio experience
Young people should not learn every important financial lesson through an expensive mistake.
Students may graduate knowing how to complete an assignment but not necessarily how to read a pay statement, evaluate a credit offer, understand taxes, compare insurance coverage, examine a contract, invest for the long term, or prepare for irregular income.
For student-athletes, the stakes may be even higher. NIL has created meaningful new opportunities — but it has also introduced contracts, taxes, business decisions, public responsibilities, and financial risks at an earlier stage of life.
The BAG Index brings these subjects together in one structured system. Its purpose is to make financial education practical, measurable, engaging, and available before major decisions occur.
"Financial education should do more than explain money. It should help young people recognize opportunity, understand consequences, ask better questions, and make decisions that support the life they want to build."— Allan Bell, Founder of The BAG Index
Our mission is to help students convert financial knowledge into financial readiness — and financial readiness into greater opportunity.