BANKING ON YOURSELF
with JOSHUA SMITH
In this edition of M&A Spotlight, we feature Joshua Smith, a seasoned professional who made a bold transition from two decades in corporate America to becoming a leading voice in financial education and wealth strategy. Joshua is passionate about helping families and business owners gain control over their capital using a concept that turns traditional banking on its head: the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC).
BIOGRAPHY
Joshua Smith spent 21 years in corporate America with GE Healthcare, where he built a career rooted in problem-solving, technology, and operational excellence. During that time, Joshua learned the importance of systems, efficiency, and scalability, skills that would later influence his approach to financial strategy. After two decades of stability in a W-2 role, Joshua reached a turning point. The desire for greater autonomy and the realization that most families and entrepreneurs lack practical financial education ignited his pivot into the world of wealth strategy.
Today, Joshua is a Wealth Strategist at Factum Financial, where he specializes in teaching the Infinite Banking Concept, a strategy designed to give individuals and businesses full control over their finances now and into the future. His mission is simple yet profound: help people break free from traditional banking systems and reclaim the power of their own capital.
Outside of his professional work, Joshua is a dedicated husband and father of six. He and his wife enjoy an active family life filled with sports such as baseball, football, golf, ice hockey, and snowboarding. Their strong family values underpin Joshua’s commitment to helping others build legacies of financial independence and stewardship for future generations.
Q&A with Joshua Smith
Q: What inspired you to transition from a stable corporate career to becoming a wealth strategist?
A: After 21 years in corporate America, I realized something important, security can often be an illusion. I watched countless colleagues devote decades to their careers, only to reach “retirement” with uncertainty and disappointment. That word, retirement, is one I’ve personally removed from my vocabulary. It’s not a biblical principle, and frankly, I don’t ever want to retire from my purpose. I want to keep creating value, keep serving, and keep leading.
The other realization was this: the qualified plans most Americans depend on, IRAs, 401(k)s, and similar vehicles, are not the golden ticket we were led to believe. The harsh reality is that the people winning the money game aren’t doing it through these plans. They’re leveraging strategies that give them control and access to their capital. That’s what led me to the Infinite Banking Concept. It’s a system that puts you in the driver’s seat of your financial future. It aligns perfectly with principles of autonomy, stewardship, and sustainability, values I live by every day.
Q: How does your background in IT and operations influence your approach to financial strategy?
A: My time at GE Healthcare taught me how to support, build, and manage efficient systems. When I discovered Infinite Banking, I immediately saw it as more than just a financial strategy; it’s a personalized financial system designed to give individuals and businesses something most people lack: control. Control over your money means independence. It means freedom from relying on banks, market volatility, and government-imposed rules.
Just like in technology, where good architecture drives reliability, in finance, the right structure creates security and predictability. But with Infinite Banking, it also creates autonomy, the ability to decide how and when your capital is used. That level of control is what truly separates those who thrive financially from those who remain dependent on outside systems.
Q: For those unfamiliar, what exactly is the Infinite Banking Concept?
A: At its core, Infinite Banking is about creating your own private banking system using a custom-designed dividend-paying whole life insurance policy. Instead of relying on traditional banks and losing money to interest, you finance major purchases, cars, real estate, even business acquisitions, through a system you own and control.
The real advantage? While you borrow against your policy for liquidity, your money never stops working. It continues to grow, earning guaranteed interest and dividends. That means you recapture the cost of interest and keep your capital compounding for life. This is a strategy built on control, privacy, liquidity, and generational wealth, giving you the freedom to operate on your terms.
Q: Why is this so relevant to business owners and M&A professionals?
A: In M&A, capital efficiency is everything. Deals live or die based on access to capital, cost of financing, and risk management. Infinite Banking gives business owners a way to create a pool of capital they control, one that grows uninterrupted while providing leverage. It’s a tool for creating dry powder without the strings attached to banks or investors. For acquisition entrepreneurs, this can be the edge that accelerates deal flow and wealth creation.
Q: What was the biggest mindset shift you experienced leaving corporate America?
A: The biggest shift was moving from being a consumer of financial products to becoming the architect of my financial system. In corporate life, we’re conditioned to outsource our financial future to banks and Wall Street. Embracing IBC taught me that the most important business you’ll ever run is your household economy.
It’s about treating your money with the same discipline and with even more respect than banks treat theirs. Just like the EVA (Economic Value Added) principle measures whether a business is creating real value after accounting for the cost of capital, you should measure your financial life the same way. If your money isn’t earning its full potential because you’ve given up control, you’re destroying value. Once you see money through that lens, everything changes.
Q: How does Infinite Banking change the way you view opportunity and risk in business acquisitions?
A: Infinite Banking gives you what traditional financing never has: certainty, liquidity, privacy, and full control over your capital. By creating a private banking system, you build a pool of money that’s independent of lenders and insulated from market volatility. This means you can move quickly on opportunities, no waiting on underwriting, no financing delays, and no red tape of any kind. You have a guaranteed line of credit on your terms, whenever and for whatever you need.
This level of control eliminates one of the biggest risks in M&A: missing out on a great deal because capital wasn’t available or took too long to secure. It also allows you to negotiate from a position of strength because you’re not at the mercy of bank terms, covenants, approval processes, or fluctuating interest rates. In short, you’re applying the EVA mindset, treating your capital as the most valuable asset in your business and making sure it’s always working for you, not sitting idle or tied up in someone else’s system.
Q: What advice would you give to someone looking to achieve financial independence or fund acquisitions differently?
A: Start by asking yourself this question: Who controls your capital? If the answer is a bank, a third-party lender, or Wall Street, you’re giving away your greatest advantage. IBC is not about a product; it’s about implementing a strategy that lets you keep your money in motion while you use it. Whether you’re growing a business, buying a company, or planning for your family, control is key.
Q: You often talk about financial control as leadership. Can you explain what you mean by that?
A: Leadership isn’t just about leading people, it’s about leading yourself and your resources well. In business, strong leaders allocate capital intentionally because they know every dollar must create value. Leadership also means building strong relationships, because the best opportunities often come through trust and connection. The same is true in your financial life. If your money is scattered across systems you don’t know and control, you’re in a weak position when opportunities or challenges arise.
Infinite Banking flips that script. It forces you to think like a CFO for your own life. You stop asking, “What can I earn?” and start asking, “How much control do I have over my capital, and what value is it creating?” When you own your banking function, you eliminate dependency on outside systems, which means your financial success no longer rises and falls with the economy, interest rates, or someone else’s decision.
Strong financial control also impacts your ability to build relationships in business. When you bring certainty and liquidity to the table, you become the partner people want to work with, the one who can move quickly, honor commitments, and structure creative deals. And on a personal level, it allows you to focus on relationships that matter most, your family and the legacy you’re building together. That, to me, is the ultimate form of leadership: creating systems that outlast you and strengthen every relationship along the way.
👊 READY TO BUILD WEALTH ON YOUR TERMS?
The future doesn’t have to be uncertain.
You can lead it, shape it, and build a system that supports it.
Let’s make that happen together!
TAKE THE FIRST STEP TOWARD TOTAL FINANCIAL CONTROL.
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