The advisory team at Compass Financial Partners in Greensboro, NC, represented by Kathleen A. Kelly, CRPS®, AIFA®, has won the 2014 NAPA 401(k) Advisor Leadership Award. Kelly, a Founding and Managing Partner of Compass, received the award on behalf of the team during a session of the NAPA 401(k) Summit in New Orleans March 24.
Now in its seventh year, the 401(k) Advisor Leadership Award recognizes a leading financial advisor or team for contributions that exemplify leadership, experience, and expertise in the retirement plan industry. The award reflects the multi-faceted efforts of advisors to serve their clients (plan sponsors and participants), act as a mentor, maintain high ethical standards, and consistently improve their practices and services in the retirement industry.
Kelly was joined by the other two finalists for this year's Leadership Award: Alliance Benefit Group Financial Services, represented by Bradley K. Arends, J.D., and Maresh Yoshida 401(k) Group, represented by Henry Yoshida, CFP®, CIMA®.
Kelly is a Founding and Managing Partner of Compass Financial Partners, LLC, in Greensboro, NC. She is a 17-year veteran of the financial services industry, specializing in the areas of retirement plan consulting and investment advisory services for qualified retirement plans and executive benefit planning. A semi-finalist for last year’s Leadership Award, Kelly has also been named to the Principal Financial Professional Advisor Council, the Prudential Advisor Council, the MassMutual Retirement Partners Council, the Transamerica Retirement Solutions RIA Advisory Board, the J.P. Morgan Advisor Council and the Retirement Advisor Council.
Kelly and her team are no strangers to the spotlight. Since 2002, they have been featured and awarded in more than 15 nationally recognized honors, including 401kWire’s 2011 300 Most Influential Advisors in Defined Contribution and PLANADVISER’s 2013 Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisers.
In 2013 Kelly and her team launched “Worksite Financial Solutions,” a revolutionary new way to provide individualized financial advice to participants. The program allows Compass to have unique conversations with plan sponsors that differentiate their practice and showcase the way they can work with participants holistically to improve retirement readiness. Today, Compass is implementing WFS throughout their book of business and launching participant programs that focus on maximizing participant outcomes.
Kelly is active in civic and philanthropic endeavors, having served on the Wake Forest Alumni Council and the Greensboro College Board of Visitors. She was selected as one of the Triads “40 Leaders Under 40 ” and was awarded a “Women in Business” Award by the Triad Business Journal. Her community involvement has included work with the Friends You Can Count On (breast cancer research), Operation Smile, founding membership in the Steering Committee for Women’s Programming with the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, and her current position on the Board of Directors of the Peaks to Piedmont Girl Scout Council. Kelly also recently completed her 1-year term as the 2011 American Heart Association Guilford Heart Ball Chair, having achieved both fundraising and attendance numbers representing new records.
Worksite Financial Solutions is offered through LPL Financial; Kathleen Kelly is a Registered Representative and Investment Advisor Representative with LPL Financial.
