Kelly Smith Sr., CLU^®, ChFC^®, RFC^®

Presentation
The New Era of ESOPs

How the CapitalSmith-Offset-ESOP is for virtually any business owner... to retain profits and create capital for additional, accelerated growth... no longer just to avoid capital gains taxes at sale/exit.  It's not your grandpa's ESOP!

This new strategy still allows for the traditional, tax favored exit and the avoidance of exit-capital gains taxation through the 1042 exchange.

This provides for more comprehensive planning, that segues into post-succession/exit into retirement and estate planning.

Biography
Kelly has worked in the Insurance and Financial Services Industry for over 40 years. He obtained undergraduate degrees in Finance and Marketing with a secondary emphasis in Accounting and Economics. He has designations as a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), and Registered Financial Consultant (RFC).

Kelly consistently qualified as a Life Member of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) for all 46 years of his career, including his rookie year with a 23-year membership of the Court of the Table and a 16-year member of the Top of the Table. As well, he is a member of the MDRT Knights Foundation and is proud of their services and charitable works around the world.

Early in his career, Kelly received an endorsement by the Los Angeles Association of the Deputy District Attorneys to design individual life and disability programs to integrate with their group contracts and disability provisions of their pension programs. The NFL Players Association worked with Kelly as a consultant in the areas of insurance, finance, and retirement. After five years in this role, Kelly left both behind to pursue and obtain valuable experience in the fields of Mergers and Acquisitions, turnarounds, and Investment Banking where he developed his proprietary line of attack for Offset Strategies™. He then focused these strategies for the benefit of small businesses and sees his role as an advocate-warrior to defend the rights of the Small Business Owner.

Kelly's work ethic comes from beginning full-time work at age 13 to help provide for his family and continued balancing that workload with varsity athletics and his formal education at California State University Long Beach where he, in various officer roles, was part of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity house and the Intrafratemity Council. As a result of all that hard work, he was able to begin life after college with no loans to pay off!

Recently, Kelly founded CapitalSmith with five other partners. With over 100 years of collective experience in the financial service industry, each partner has a unique background and lends their expertise to the team.

CapitalSmith uses an arsenal of strategic financial weapons to assist owners of a closely held businesses and high net worth clients in developing a Fully Insured Financial Infrastructure™. Examples of the tactical tools used within the strategies include ESOPs, Captives, proprietary structured leverage, and revocable and irrevocable trusts. When used within a properly designed and executed strategy, these tools assist clients in repositioning profit lost in the form of taxes to Tax Exempt Retained Capital (TERC™). Essentially creating a tax-neutral environment, which allows the business owner to grow larger and more quickly by legally reducing or eliminating income, capital gains, and estate taxes.

Kelly now lives in Irvine with his wife, Akemi and they have two grown children. He and his wife enjoy travel, wine-tasting, and the occasional (way-too-many-strokes-but-there-to-have-fun) golf game. Kelly enjoys Rugby, Mixed Martial Arts, Track & Field, and Irish sports such as Gaelic Football and Hurling, and is proud of his Irish-American heritage!