2025 Trusted Advisers Legacy Adviser: Robert J. Helm
By: Gregory Holman, Deputy Editor, Springfield Business Journal
Elliott, Robinson & Co. LLP: Robert J. Helm, CPA
- Bachelor of science in accounting, Missouri State University, 1980
- Managed $1.4 million in business among 394 clients in 2024
- Elliott, Robinson & Company LLP partner, 1988-present; managing partner; 2004-2022
- Chairman, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee (2025); previously served as chairman-elect (2024) and treasurer (2021-2023)
- Boys & Girls Club of Springfield, board member 1988-2002; Boys & Girls Club Foundation, 2024-present
In the world of public accounting, few professionals have witnessed the dramatic transformation of the industry quite like Bob Helm. But despite major changes in tax law and technology over the years, he says the value of relationships remains constant.
At 67, the Elliott, Robinson & Company LLP partner says he’s continuing to embrace change, all while maintaining the personal touch that has defined his four-decade career in Springfield, which began soon after his graduation from Missouri State University in 1980.
Helm studied accounting in the Ozarks, but his life journey began in Kansas City. He grew up as one of eight children – the fifth in line among four girls and four boys – as part of what he describes as a typical family of the 1960s-70s.
“We were dirt-poor. We had a blast together. Our yard was a gathering place,” Helm recalls.
Helm says he wasn’t one of those kids who lacked attention amid a big busy family: “Really, we just had a good time together,” he says. “A Helm vacation was, we either went to Lake of the Ozarks when we lived in Kansas City, or we went to Table Rock. We were campers, and so we grew up camping, because that’s all that we could afford.”
This heartland beginning shaped Helm’s understanding of hard work and family values. “So we all worked hard,” he says. “We got jobs as quick as we could, to have spending income.”
All eight siblings are still alive and get together as often as they can, Helm says. Hard work and the value of relationships turned out to be principles that would later define Helm’s approach to fostering ties with professional clients.
When SBJ asked Helm about what it means to be a trusted adviser for a person working in his field, Helm emphasized that trust is built, and the building of trust takes effort.
“I think it’s a term (trusted adviser) that’s earned over time,” Helm says. “I don’t think you walk into a room and you become that right out of the gate.”
Instead, an accountant contributes to “assistant” decisions that lead to helping clients make big decisions: “buying, selling companies, big purchases, mergers, things like that,” Helm says.
“To me, it’s one of those things that you earn. I don’t know how long it took me, probably a long time, but you become part of what those companies do to operate. And it can be simple stuff. It can be life. A lot of it is just life, things that (clients) go through, difficult times in their marriage or children problems. They share all that stuff with you.”
The depths of these professional relationships can sometimes form a bond that transcends typical business arrangements. Helm offers up as evidence an experience he calls one of the “coolest” moments of his career: He was invited to speak at a longtime client’s funeral.
Helm had worked with this client, and the family, since the mid-1980s. He says over time, his client became almost like a family member. “She calls me son, which is too funny because she says she helped raise me,” Helm says, though the two met when he was already a working professional in his middle twenties.
While Helm was “young and green,” the family started a new company, and he worked with them for the following decade. When the patriarch of the family passed away, Helm’s client told him there would be “nobody” she’d rather have speak at the funeral.
“I was honored that they would ask me to do that,” Helm says. “It was way harder than I thought it was going to be, but we had a lot of fun with it. … It’s just where we had built this incredible relationship over time.”
Helm’s focus has been on corporate, individual, trust and estate taxes, along with business consulting and mergers and acquisitions work. He says he’s witnessed significant changes in public accounting, particularly since 2000. “In the first 20 years that I was in the profession, tax law didn’t change very much,” he notes. “Then you get to the 2000s and technology really drove a lot of it. It exploded, and it picked up the pace of what everything is doing.” Despite technological advances, including AI, Helm believes human interaction remains irreplaceable. “When you get down to the nuts and bolts of the matter, you have to have a conversation, a human conversation, to make that work out,” he emphasizes. Beyond his professional achievements, Helm has been deeply involved in community service: “What I had learned was you don’t just go on a board because somebody asked me,” he says. “You go on a board because you it’s something you’re passionate about.”
Among a myriad of Helm’s professional passions: a stint on the Missouri State Board of Accountancy from 2011 to 2018, appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon, and board membership for the Boys & Girls Club of Springfield from 1988 to 2002. He’s also served on the executive committee of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, where he is currently chairman and “absolutely having a great time,” after serving as chairman-elect last year and treasurer from 2021-2023.
“If you want to make a difference, you’ve got to get involved in your community,” Helm says.
For young professionals entering the accounting field, Helm offers practical wisdom: “You have to invest in yourself,” he says. “This isn’t your employer’s responsibility to make you as good as you want to be. You have to invest in yourself, which means keeping up with tax law, doing leadership things, embracing what you do, learn how to become a better problem-solver. We’re in the problem-solving business.”
As for retirement plans, Helm remains enthusiastic about his evolving role. “People ask me at my now advanced age of 67 when I’m retiring. I don’t have any immediate plans. I love what I do still,” he says. His job has transformed into primarily advisory and consulting work, which he finds fulfilling – evidence of decades of consistent service both for clients and the wider community.
###
Holman, Gregory. (Posted online September 15, 2025). 2025 Trusted Advisers Legacy Adviser: Robert J. Helm. Springfield Business Journal. Sept.15-21, 2025 / Vol. 46, No. 7. [subscriber content]