Cornerstone gives big to education!

Cornerstone is proud to announce their partnership with the Dorchester 2 Foundation, an organization with a mission to Mission: to create and build partnerships to support the advancement of education in our community.

The foundation works with the community in several ways:

Impact Initiatives

Impact Initiatives are projects that have been identified by District Two Superintendent Joe Pye and confirmed by the Foundation Board of Directors, as beneficial to learning on a large scale, but not possible within the standard budget. Often these initiatives allow opportunity for business and community partnership in addition to financial support.

Innovation Awards

Innovation Awards are submitted by district staff and are scored by leaders from the community, regional industry, and the school district. In three years, the foundation has awarded 28 grants for a total of $92,000! 18,764 students benefit from these programs annually. In December 2017, nine grants were awarded and will benefit 4,604 students.

Currently the Foundation’s Impact Initiative is a $1 Million campaign to equip the Advanced Manufacturing Center scheduled to open in 2018-2019.

In spring of 2016 a Manufacturing Advisory Committee was created to include representatives from business and industry, Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development, SC Department of Commerce, SC Department of Education, local colleges and technical school, architects, SC Ready Program, Dorchester Two Educational Foundation, and district & school administrators. Goals of this endeavor are to prepare our students for well-paying jobs as well as support existing industries, play a key role in the recruitment of new industry, and build a pipeline of talented local workers able to fill the existing and forecasted labor shortage.

Cornerstone recently attended and sponsored “The Big Event” in support of the Foundation. Pictured below are a few members of the team enjoying a night of fun for a good cause!

To learn more about the foundation and how you can help, visit their website. https://dd2foundation.org/

Cornerstone Sponsors Miracle League

Giving back is so important to the Cornerstone team. This is why we are helping to sponsor the North Charleston Miracle League field and Playground.

Pictured, are a few members of our team at the kick-off awareness event Golf Tournament on Friday, March 16th with the proceeds to be used to build a portion of the park.

The City of North Charleston plans to construct an all-inclusive 24,000 square foot playground, Miracle League Baseball Field, sound garden, picnic area and more for ALL to enjoy- regardless of one’s physical, emotional, or mental abilities conveniently located in Park Circle. No place like it exists in the entire Tri-County area, which is why this project is so important to the community and why Cornerstone knew we had to help!

Check out this video to learn more about the program and how you can help too! https://youtu.be/zxsuhuZReyE

Lost Life Insurance Policies

Did you know that in the last few decades an estimated $1 BILLION dollars in life insurance benefits remain unclaimed? How is this possible? The answer is simple. Lost Life Insurance Policies. In this week’s post, we’d like to reference a recent article found on Yahoo Finance entitled “Life Insurers Pressed on Lost Policies.”*

The article begins by mentioning a woman, named Mary Lou, who was surprised to receive a check for $7,000 more than a decade after the death of her father. The check was from unclaimed life insurance policies her father had taken out previously, that his family had no knowledge of.

At the time of her father’s death, Mary Lou inquired with the insurance company with whom she knew he had policies, to see if there were any other accounts. She was told at the time that they didn’t owe her anything else. As it turns out, that $7,000 check was for three policies that she didn’t have a policy number for.

Mary Lou voices her concern for the situation as it may affect others, “Can you imagine all the millions or billions of dollars that belong to other people and they don’t know to claim it,” she says, in Yahoo’s article?

Backing up Mary Lou’s statement, state regulators estimate that over the decades life insurance companies have failed to pay well over $1 Billion in death benefits. The reason? Because it’s up to the beneficiaries to file a claim following death.  One industry official says that whatever the amount is, it’s a “very small percentage” of total claims paid. “We know the percentages represent real people and we’ve been working with policy makers on ways to ensure all policyholders get the benefits they deserve,” said the official, Bruce Ferguson of the American Council of Life Insurers.

Recognizing that new technology can help alleviate this problem, insurance companies in many states are being required to check old unclaimed policies against death databases, and to make payouts to those they owe.

Most insurance companies will probably not fight these regulations. Yahoo’s article went on to state that opposing a requirement to check the databases would be particularly difficult given that many insurance companies already check them when it’s in their interest- for example, to learn about the deaths of annuity customers because such deaths usually end the insurers duty to make payments under retirement-income contracts.

As many such modern systems are slowly being implemented into this industry, the process of handling insurance claims is no doubt going to undergo some changes. The article mentioned above referenced a number of such changes that are already taking place.

Of course we all look forward to a time when this process has been completely ironed out and everyone has a perfect way to keep track of all of the policies they and their family have. But in the mean time, the monetary figures mentioned most likely only strengthen your resolve not to be one of the many whose unclaimed benefits make up that staggering $1 Billion.

Taking advantage of free help which can keep you from becoming part of that statistic is definitely a wise course.

At Cornerstone, your advisor becomes your advisor for LIFE. They work with you to put together a portfolio with all of your information which we keep on file and make available to your beneficiaries when you pass away. This ensures that any policies you have are processed properly and your legacy is paid out to those you left it to.

Contact us today to set up an appointment where we can help you manage all of your insurance policies and investments in one place. Our services are always provided at NO COST to you!

*http://finance.yahoo.com/news/life-insurers-pressed-lost-policies-030100774.html