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Partnering For Financial Peace

Prioritizing the Needs of Our Clients

At Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, we know the financial planning process can seem overwhelming at times. Our team is here to help, and we keep our clients and their needs at the center of everything we do. We prioritize getting to know our clients. In part, we want each client to feel totally comfortable coming to us with questions or concerns. Additionally, the better we know our clients, the more comprehensive support we can provide.

Our Services

Cornerstone Wealth Advisors offers comprehensive financial services. Our advisor will help you create an insightful strategy to help you address your financial needs and concerns.

Investment Planning

“When you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time”. We all know the importance of having a well-defined plan to pursue our goals. Let’s sit down together and develop a comprehensive, well-thought-out plan that we will revisit over time to ensure we keep you on track with the goals we outlined in your personalized financial plan.

There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to your investments. Our team takes a tailored approach to building your portfolio to meet your specific needs. Several factors must be considered when tailoring your portfolio to fit YOU. These factors include risk tolerance, personal goals, time horizon, income needs, and your overall financial objective. Our investments team uses internal and external market research to ensure we tailor your portfolio to fit your individual investment plan. We continuously evaluate the markets and make changes to your portfolio to ensure you stay on track.

Small Business Planning

At Cornerstone Wealth Advisors we pride ourselves on being small business retirement plan specialists. As a small business owner, let us help you set up the retirement plan that is going to help you work toward the goals you have set forth. We want to ensure the retirement plan we have in place addresses three main goals:

  1.  Reduces personal liability for the business owner.
  2.  Ensures we are taking advantage of all tax savings available to the business owner.
  3.  Ensures the plan is as efficient as possible.

Already have a retirement plan in place for your small business? We are happy to do a thorough review of your current plan. There may be areas of the plan where we can help you address these three goals.

If you are a small business owner and plan to sell your business when you retire, we can assist you with determining the best strategy for the sale of the business. Plan to pass your small business down to the next generation? We can assist you with the succession planning process.

Retirement Planning

No matter how close or far you are from your desired retirement age, let us help you create a plan. We all have a vision of what retirement will look like. Let us walk through your retirement goals together and develop a comprehensive plan that strives to balance the need for a predictable cash flow as well as any other retirement goals you may have. We will walk with you through the transition from career to retirement. We will take the stress out of rolling over any 401(k)’s into a managed IRA. We will help manage the required minimum distributions (RMD) when it’s time. We will also ensure any distributions during your retirement are tax efficient, so you are not paying more tax than necessary. We want to help you achieve your desired lifestyle through retirement with ease.

Tax Planning

Two things are certain in life – death and taxes. No one enjoys paying taxes. We want to help minimize your tax burden. There are strategies we can use – such as tax loss harvesting, qualified charitable distributions, exemptions, and certain tax deductions – to help reduce the amount of tax you pay. We can also look at different investment approaches that could potentially minimize the amount of taxes you pay.

We are not tax professionals or attorneys so we do not give formal tax or legal advice but will gladly work with your current tax or legal professional to ensure your investments are as tax efficient as possible.  We are also happy to make introductions to tax professionals if the need arises.

Estate Planning

You have worked so hard for so long to build wealth. How will that wealth be passed to the next generation? What if I want to leave my assets to a charity? How will I know my loved ones will be taken care of when I’m gone? There are all great questions to ask. We, at Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, will help you with your estate planning. We will ensure the assets you have worked so hard to build are distributed according to your wishes.

Cornerstone Wealth Advisors and LPL Financial do not provide legal advice or services.  Please consult your legal advisor regarding your specific situation.

Education Planning

We all want the best for our children and grandchildren. This includes creating an opportunity to attend a private school or college of choice. At Cornerstone Wealth Advisors we will help determine what strategy will be the best, and most tax-efficient, to achieve the educational goals you have for those special ones in your life. We offer a number of options including 529 plans, Coverdell accounts, and custodial accounts, to name a few.

Charitable Giving

Gifting can be an important part of any financial plan. Whether you want to give to your children or grandchildren, give to your church, or maybe to your favorite charity, we can develop the best approach for giving to the people or organizations that mean the most to you.

We are happy to work with your tax and legal professionals to discuss potential tax-saving strategies.

Risk Management

So now that we have a plan in place – let’s protect it! We help protect you from those unforeseen costs or losses by offering a variety of insurance coverages. These coverages include disability, life, and long-term care insurance. We believe these products can be a crucial part of a long-term financial plan.

We will review any existing insurances you currently have. Products change over time, and we want to ensure your insurance products are aligned with your overall strategy.

It’s the Little Things

We believe attention to detail is paramount to a successful advisor-client relationship and our ability to provide comprehensive service and support. From a relationship standpoint, we want our clients to feel as comfortable as possible—both in visiting our office and trusting us with any goal or concern, no matter how small. Our service provides honest, direct feedback and advice, and we treat each client with the utmost integrity. We want our clients to leave each meeting financially worry-free because they know we have their back.

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Meet The Team

CEO, Wealth Management Advisor

Cory D. McElyea

Cory is CEO and Wealth Management Advisor for Cornerstone. From helping families plan for a child’s college education, reduce taxes or save for retirement to working alongside small business owners, he works directly with clients to develop an investment strategy geared toward their unique, long-term goals.

The emphasis of Cory’s practice is getting to know each client, so he can help them reach their goals and take care of their family. In addition, he enjoys being able to meet new people and establish a personal relationship with each client.

One of Cornerstone’s main focuses is to help clients position themselves to make retirement dreams come true. Cory and his team will develop a strategy tailored toward unique retirement goals and a plan to track that goal through retirement.

Another area of focus is helping small business owners make sure their business retirement plans are efficient and effective while monitoring progress to ensure adherence to the plan.

Cory earned a Master of Science degree from Florida Tech and currently holds General Securities Representatives (Series 7 held with LPL Financial), Uniformed Combined State Law Examination (Series 66 held with both LPL Financial and NewEdge Advisors), and life and health insurance licenses.

Cory has lived in the Athens/Madison area his entire life. He and his wife, Sabrina, have two children. Both children enjoy playing sports. Their son is also an outdoors enthusiast, while their daughter loves to bake. The entire family loves animals and has two miniature Schnauzers, Molly and Hazel.

(O) 256.417.4477
(E) cory@cwaal.com

Client Services Specialist

Mia Dempsey

Mia is the Client Services Specialist for Cornerstone. Mia’s goal is to make each client’s experience pleasant, positive, and efficient, and to become a familiar, trusted face and voice for all of Cornerstone’s clients.

 

Mia’s responsibilities include interfacing with clients and product partners in person, via telephone and email, scheduling client reviews, financial planning meetings and client events, attending community and marketing events, as well as managing paperwork flow to include opening, transferring, and servicing client accounts.

 

Mia grew up in Russellville, Alabama, where she graduated high school. She attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama Huntsville, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communication arts. Mia’s resume’ includes over 15 years in the field of Information Technology (IT), with experience in sales, marketing, contracts negotiation, proposal writing, contracts management, SLA management, as well as sales & management consulting. While being primarily a stay-at-home mom during her two children’s early years, she volunteered as a PTA committee & board member and served as a substitute teacher as well. She joined Cornerstone Wealth Advisors shortly after its inception.

 

Mia has been married to her husband Anthony for over 30 years, and she loves spending time with him and their two children, Abbi and Luke, and their dog, Dash. Mia and her family love to travel, play games, cheer on Luke and the Athens Bible School Trojans basketball team, as well as cheer on the Crimson Tide sports teams with Abbi who is a student at BAMA. She also enjoys teaching Bible classes – 4th and 5th grades, 6th-8th grade girls, as well as ladies’ Bible classes.

 

(O) 256.417.4477
(E) mia@cwaal.com

Will Brand, CRCP®

Chief Compliance Officer

Ryan Geschke

Director of Investments

Erin Corbett

Director of Finance & Human Capital

Jenny Kurz

Marketing Coordinator

Lauren Lehman, CFA®, CFP®

Head of Portfolio Management

Arianna Rodriguez, CIMA®

Senior Portfolio Manager

Will Brand, CRCP®

Chief Compliance Officer

Ryan Geschke

Director of Investments

Erin Corbett

Director of Finance & Human Capital

Jenny Kurz

Marketing Coordinator

Lauren Lehman, CFA®, CFP®

Head of Portfolio Management

Arianna Rodriguez, CIMA®

Senior Portfolio Manager

Resource Partners

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Resource Partners

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Get In Touch

Do you have questions for Cornerstone Wealth Advisors and want to get in touch? Give us a call Monday – Thursday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and Friday 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. CST, or email us at any time. We are here to serve you.