Cornerstone Sponsors Young Life Charleston

Last Friday night, Cornerstone was proud to be the Premier Sponsor for a Young Life fundraising event. Cornerstone also donated meeting room space to the event and it was a huge success!

What is Young Life?
Young Life is an international outreach ministry to high school and middle school students. The mission of Young Life is to introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith.
Young Life doesn’t start with a program. It starts with adults concerned enough about kids to go to them, on their turf and in their culture, building bridges of authentic friendship. These relationships don’t happen overnight — they take time, patience, trust and consistency. So Young Life leaders log many hours with kids around the world — where they are, as they are. We listen to their stories and learn what’s important to them because we genuinely care about their joys, triumphs, heartaches and setbacks.

Stock Brokers vs. Financial Advisors

It’s Business…

“Its business,” is the excuse many professionals use when they are doing something they know is less than ethical. They aren’t doing anything illegal, they’re just maneuvering a situation to benefit the company they work for, or their own bank account, OVER the benefit of their client.

We see this frequently in the financial services industry, and it’s the reason so many individuals are leery to trust someone else to manage their money. And it’s logical to be cautious when you know that someone will make their living off of the decisions they lead you to make with your wealth.

Camouflaged under the concept of “Business is Business” many stockbrokers make recommendations to their clients that are not really in their best interests. An article found in Yahoo Finance Online* says,

“Many of those who work on Wall Street go through a process in which they gradually learn that what is perceived as “smart investing” is often unbelievably dumb. Specifically, they learn that many of the recommendations that Wall Street makes, and the transactions that Wall Street gets paid to facilitate, are not in their clients’ best interests.” The article goes on to talk about a former stockbroker named Josh Brown who left the business when he was forced to do things that weren’t really in the best interest of his clients.  He is now a Financial Advisor and says that in this position his interests and his client’s interests are more closely aligned.

Stockbrokers Vs. Financial Advisors

Most people don’t recognize that there’s even a difference between a “Stock Broker” and a “Financial Advisor,” but there is, the article says. “Stockbrokers generally work for brokerage firms and do not have to recommend trades that they think are in their clients’ best interests. Rather, they just have to recommend securities that are “suitable” (a much lower standard). Financial advisers, meanwhile, have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their clients.”

The article concludes by saying that someone looking for “sound financial advice” would be wise to choose a Financial Advisor over a Stockbroker.

Cornerstone proud to have a group of Financial Advisors who have a DUTY to provide their clients with more than just “suitable options”. Cornerstone advisors are required by law to make sure that they offer the very best options to anyone who comes to them for advice, and this business model pays off on all accounts. Cornerstone was awarded the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Ethics in 2017, and has an A+ rating with the Bureau.

In addition to the state-specific laws and regulations they follow, Cornerstone itself has set very strict procedures that must be followed when their Advisors are meeting with clients. As mentioned in our previous article, ” FINANCIAL REVIEW: HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FINANCIAL FRAUD we take collecting information about our clients VERY seriously. Why? Because to make the best suggestions, we must have all the information!

Investor Relations

Giving Cornerstone an even stronger ability to do the best for their clients, is the huge number of Investment Relationships they have. Cornerstone works with more than 150 different A+ rated companies (You’ve surely heard of some of them, like John Hancock, ING, MetLife, Lincoln Financial and Humana) and so their agents have the ability to compare the rates of a number of companies and find the best option for you!

Even dealing with a Financial Advisor who represents a specific Insurance Company or bank can bring on a challenge, because they may recommend the best option that THEIR COMPANY has to offer, but it may not be the best option for you overall. Cornerstone itself is not an insurance company and does not have any of its own products, so when meeting with a Cornerstone representative, clients can be assured that their Advisor has no ulterior motive in suggesting a certain product or service.

Their job is to pick the product that will save you the most money, make you the most money, or best meet any of your specific needs. When seeking good financial advice, as the Yahoo article mentioned above, contacting a Financial Advisor, such as the ones you can find at Cornerstone, is the way to go!

Feel free to contact any one of our representatives for financial advice completely free of charge!  Meet our Team.

Cornerstone Sponsors Cops Athletic Program

Cornerstone is proud to announce our recent sponsorship of the North Charleston Police Department’s CAPS (Cops Athletic Program). Their motto is, “Cops, kids and community, teaming up to make a difference” Their goal is to “inspire, educate and empower the young minds within our community with positive, lifelong educational experiences”