The talented team members at Cornerstone Advisors provided the estate design leadership to guide our family and former company — Ainsworth Pet Nutrition —  through five generations of private ownership and through the ultimate sale of the company. They continue to work with our family today. Our relationship with staff at Cornerstone now surpasses 50 years and will continue for many more to come.

The Cornerstone team is constantly challenging conventional thinking in long term succession planning as well as structure and tax strategy. They are truly our family's #1 advocate.

Cornerstone also helped us structure effective long term incentive plans: deferred comp plans, phantom stock plans, and a phantom stock option/stock appreciation rights plan. This enabled us to attract big company talent with a plan that mirrored the family's equity. 

The innovative life insurance planning that Cornerstone put in place more than 40 years ago added significant strength to our balance sheet and enabled us to obtain very favorable financing during our company's rapid growth.

Sean Lang – The Lang Family (formerly Ainsworth Pet Nutrition), Meadville, PA

Services performed:

• Creation of qualified plans
• Consulted on various mergers and acquisitions
• Creation of Non-Qualified Plans
• Human capital development
• Transferred assets with almost no gift or estate taxes
• Management of extensive real estate partnerships
• Family charitable solutions
• Creation and management of complex life insurance portfolio
• Consulted on sale of business in 2018 to public entity
• Continued estate planning using tax-efficient methods of transferring sale proceeds to future generations
• Creation of multiple South Dakota trusts for asset protection and dynastic planning
  

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