Tim Harty, The Business Times

After operating for about a decade in the Vail Valley, Cornerstone Insurance & Financial Group is looking to make inroads in the Grand Valley.

Cornerstone Insurance joined the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce and announced its Grand Valley presence at the chamber’s office building on Oct. 6 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Licensed insurance advisor Ariel Hollibaugh, who was on hand for the ribbon cutting along with co-worker and licensed insurance adviser Mixon Rob, will be Cornerstone’s main point of contact for Grand Valley customers. Cornerstone Insurance will not have a brick-and-mortar office in Grand Junction, but Hollibaugh said she grew up in Loma, visits family in the Grand Valley frequently, and she knows the area.

Remote work also is how Cornerstone, owned by principal agent Tony Martinez, operates in the Vail Valley.

“We have one small office and kind of a co-working space in Edwards,” Hollibaugh said. “But for the most part, we’re all remote, and we all kind of travel quite a bit. 

“We have clients all over the U.S. We can write in almost all 50 states, so I’ve got clients in North Carolina. We’ve got them in Florida, in Texas …”

While Cornerstone Insurance may extend to all corners of the country, growing its business closer to home makes sense.

“I come down quite a bit to visit my family, and we were talking about where we want to expand territory and just push business out to, and I said, ‘Well, let me do Grand Junction, since I go down there a lot, and I like the area and know people,’” Hollibaugh said. “We are in the chambers up there (Vail Valley), and I love the chamber events. We’re super involved. So that was my first thought of what we should do down here is join the chamber.”

Regularly attending chamber events will help Hollibaugh network with businesses, and that makes sense, because commercial insurance is Cornerstone’s focus. Plus, she will use other methods to interact with business owners, such as joining other business groups and nonprofit boards, interacting online via Cornerstone’s website and LinkedIn page, and good old-fashioned face-to-face visits.

Already in Grand Junction, she said, “I’ve done a little bit of kind of boots on the ground marketing, just kind of poking my head into some places and dropping off flyers.”

Hollibaugh added, “Throughout the week, we’ll go out and visit business owners, and I take people treats and flyers and things like that to get our name out there.”

She said her specialty in commercial insurance is homeowners, condo and community associations, which have become more difficult to insure in recent years, but Hollibaugh said Cornerstone has insurance carriers that will write policies for those risks.

“I also do a fair amount of trade services. I have some commercial roofers. I’ve got some plumbing contractors, HVAC, electrical,” she said. “We really love small retail, like clothing stores, salons. We can do doctors offices. We do quite a bit of hospitality, so we have a lot of restaurants in our book. We’ve got some taverns.

“We have access to all kinds of products, even high-risk stuff. Because we’re an independent brokerage, we can write really niche, high risk. Like, we have a client who does outdoor-adventure-type stuff. I’ve got a client who’s got ski-bike rentals in the winter. So, we write all kinds of weird, funky things, too.”

Cornerstone Insurance is stepping into a market where plenty of other insurance agencies provide commercial coverage, but Hollibaugh believes Cornerstone’s approach and array of carriers will make it competitive.

“I think one of the things that we do really well is, because we’re an independent brokerage, we have access to a huge market to shop from,” she said. “I can shop with 25 different carriers … and be able to find the best rate.

“We pride ourselves on white-glove service for our clients. None of us have books where things auto-renew. We always sit down with our clients. We always talk to them about their needs and if they have changing operations and things like that. We are always available. We pride ourselves in a 24-hour turnaround time for COIs (certificates of insurance) and any kind of communication.”

Hollibaugh doesn’t do financial planning, but she can arrange for anyone from the Grand Valley to meet with Michelle Martinez, Cornerstone’s financial advisor.