Dennis Smith

Founder and CEO

Dennis Smith is the founder of First Responders Financial LLC and is a licensed financial advisor with the NASD and the SEC. In his 18 years as a New York City firefighter, he developed profound respect for the professionalism of the firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and nurses with whom he worked in the more than 40 alarms his engine company responded to every day. He witnessed their willingness to give of themselves in the course of their duty. He also came to know their financial needs, which were his own needs – how to raise a family with small but growing resources, how to save for the children's educations and for family vacations, and how to budget for the essentials of a modern life…. like telephone service, a reliable car, insurance for auto, home, and supplemental health. And also, when the children go to school, to realize how burdensome are the costs of their computers and electronic accessories, and if they need a car, both the car and its insurance, not to mention the gasoline that will take them from home to school – costs that require savings. And, finally, how important it is to consider the safest and most productive way to supplement the pension systems that exist within the emergency professions, for in today's world, hardly a pension system exists that is adequate to the costs of retirement.

Early in 2001, Dennis, who had spent half of his life in the emergency service, and the other half writing books and creating businesses, realized that there were financial companies serving the exclusive interests of teachers and also military professionals. He asked the natural question: Why was there no company designed to serve only the financial interests of our first responders – who, including spouses, are nine and a half million strong in the United States. The answer was simple: If it did not exist, it should be created. So, Dennis set about making First Responders Financial Services LLC a company that exists only to serve the interests of first responders - and not be, as all of us have come to know, one of the many companies with wider interests seeking to include first responders beneath their tent of customers.

Dennis Smith's experience and reputation make him powerfully and uniquely able to represent the interests and needs of emergency professionals and departments. His remarkable career as firefighter, best-selling author, magazine publisher, business leader, and director of important emergency-service not-for-profits provides him with a sound point of view about what is needed to help first responders in determining the financial and insurance products and services that are both prudent and beneficial. The choice that is right for you, and for your family.