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Who We Are

About Cornerstone Licensing

Stay licensed to operate, in every state

Our Mission

Built by Licensing Specialists

Cornerstone Licensing is a team of licensing specialists who have completed over 525,000 filings across all 50 states, US territories, and cities, with nearly 30 years of experience focused on a single problem: making multi-state licensing painless for financial services and fintech companies.

  • Over 525,000 filings completed across all 50 states, US territories, and cities

  • Direct relationships with state agencies in all 50 jurisdictions

  • Atlas compliance platform: every license, bond, and renewal in one place

  • Dedicated specialists assigned to every account

Cornerstone Licensing team

By the Numbers

What Our Clients Rely On

Years Experience

28

Years Experience

Filings Completed

525,000+

Filings Completed

States Covered

50

States Covered

Active Clients

1000+

Active Clients

Our Values

What Drives Us Every Day

  • Integrity

    We do what we say, every time. Compliance work has zero tolerance for surprises.

  • Expertise

    Decades of regulatory experience, kept current with every state rule change.

  • Responsiveness

    Specialists answer in hours, not days. Renewals are tracked weeks ahead.

  • Partnership

    Your business is unique. We build a plan that fits how you actually operate.

  • Accuracy

    Every filing is reviewed before it leaves our desks. No retries, no penalties.

  • Transparency

    Atlas gives you real-time visibility into every license, bond, and renewal.

Why we built it this way

Operators are tired of being passed around.

A named specialist owns your file end to end. No ticket queue. No guessing what stage you are at.

  1. What you usually get

    Your file lands in a ticket queue.

    3case numbers, no owner

    A reply-all chain with three case numbers. Whoever has bandwidth that hour picks it up. Context drops at every handoff and you re-explain your business on every call.

  2. And the worst part

    Nobody tells you when something stalls.

    4 weeksbefore anyone tells you it stalledDay 31

    An examiner asks for a corrected form on day 31. The ticket sits. You find out four weeks later, when your launch date moves. The provider blames the state. The state blames the provider.

  3. The Atlas dashboard showing action items, filings due, completed work, and a licensing status map.
    How we staff it

    Here, a named specialist owns it end to end.

    Same dayreply from your specialist

    The same person who takes your intake files your packets, answers the examiner, and rolls the renewal. They have a phone number. They reply the same day. If they ever change, the handoff is a real meeting, not a ticket transfer.

  4. And they are never alone

    Their playbook is everyone's playbook.

    You learn what is actually required when you submit tens of thousands of filings a year. Some states reject filings stapled instead of paper-clipped. Others kick them back over the wrong ink color. When a new quirk surfaces anywhere on the team, it is added to every specialist's playbook immediately, so your file never gets caught by it.

    Meet the team
Why we built it this way
What you usually get

Your file lands in a ticket queue.

3case numbers, no owner

A reply-all chain with three case numbers. Whoever has bandwidth that hour picks it up. Context drops at every handoff and you re-explain your business on every call.

Our Pillars

The People at Our Core

These three have each spent well over a decade at Cornerstone. They have seen the rules change and the industry shift, and they still set the standard the rest of the team works to.

  • Christy Barger

    Christy Barger

    CRO

    Shapes how Cornerstone works with every client, so the relationship stays as dependable as the filings.

    With Cornerstone since 2005

  • Denille Bickford

    Denille Bickford

    Director of Operations

    Keeps the licensing teams trained and the day to day running, so your work is handled right the first time.

    With Cornerstone since 2008

  • Carly Pearson

    Carly Pearson

    Initial Licensing Manager

    Leads the team that gets new licenses filed correctly from the start, which cuts back and forth and prevents problems later.

    With Cornerstone since 2012

All three began as licensing specialists, and each has spent well over a decade with Cornerstone.

The Team

Specialists Behind Every Filing

222+ Combined years of licensing experience
  • Anna Agee

    Anna Agee

    Researcher

  • Monica Anglin

    Monica Anglin

    Licensing Specialist

  • Christy Barger

    Christy Barger

    CRO

  • Denille Bickford

    Denille Bickford

    Director of Operations

  • Susan Blair

    Susan Blair

    Accounting Specialist

  • Reilly Boehm

    Reilly Boehm

    Customer Success Specialist

  • Jeff Brewer

    Jeff Brewer

    President & CEO

  • Maggie Brown

    Maggie Brown

    Licensing Specialist

  • Gail Burgess

    Gail Burgess

    Licensing Specialist

  • Nathan Carver

    Nathan Carver

    Principal Software Developer

  • Kendrah Cox

    Licensing Specialist

  • Jennifer Cristao

    Jennifer Cristao

    Licensing Specialist

  • Dawn Graham

    Dawn Graham

    Training Manager

  • Michaela Gruber

    Michaela Gruber

    Licensing Assistant

  • Sumita Hunter

    Licensing Specialist

  • Esther HwangBo

    Licensing Specialist

  • Angela Johnston

    Angela Johnston

    Marketing Coordinator

  • Kaylah Jones

    Kaylah Jones

    Licensing Specialist

  • Shayna Kaul

    Shayna Kaul

    Account Executive

  • Claudia Keirn

    Claudia Keirn

    Director of Finance

  • Leslie Keneely

    Leslie Keneely

    Office Manager

  • Jennifer Kim

    Jennifer Kim

    Renewal Department Manager

  • Joe Liffrig

    Joe Liffrig

    CTO

  • Caroline Long

    Caroline Long

    Controller

  • Sheri Long

    Sheri Long

    Staff Accountant

  • Danielle Longamore

    Danielle Longamore

    Licensing Specialist

  • Jody Loyd

    Senior Insurance Agent

  • Jack Lucas

    Jack Lucas

    Full Stack Developer

  • John McKinney

    John McKinney

    CMO

  • Cami Merges

    Bonds Specialist

  • Teri Milhollin

    Licensing Specialist

  • Lauren Murphy

    Lauren Murphy

    Licensing Specialist

  • Brandi Palladino

    Brandi Palladino

    Researcher

  • Whitney Palladino

    Whitney Palladino

    Licensing Specialist

  • Sylvia Park

    Sylvia Park

    Licensing Specialist

  • Carly Pearson

    Carly Pearson

    Initial Licensing Manager

  • Brooke Scheumann

    Brooke Scheumann

    Licensing Specialist

  • Madison Sherer

    Madison Sherer

    Licensing Specialist

  • Jung Shin

    Licensing Specialist

  • Michelle Simpson

    Michelle Simpson

    Business Services Specialist

  • Penny Siniard

    Licensing Specialist

  • Angela Slagle

    Angela Slagle

    Licensing Specialist

  • Candice Smith

    Candice Smith

    Licensing Specialist

  • Paige Stegall

    Senior Licensing Specialist

  • Sydney Strickland

    Sydney Strickland

    Licensing Specialist

  • Meredith Walters

    Meredith Walters

    Initial Registration Specialist

  • Suzanne Weaver

    Suzanne Weaver

    Sr. Account Executive

  • Christina Whitenton

    Christina Whitenton

    Licensing Specialist

  • Gabbrielle Davis Williams

    Gabbrielle Davis Williams

    Licensing Specialist

  • Nicole Womack

    Licensing Specialist

  • Andrea Woodbury

    Andrea Woodbury

    Bond and Insurance Agent

  • Heather Zambrano

    Heather Zambrano

    Licensing Specialist

How we use AI

The tools changed. The judgment did not.

Cornerstone has been filing licenses since 1998. We use AI the way any experienced team uses a good tool: as an assistant that helps our specialists work faster, not as a replacement for their judgment. The models run on Cornerstone infrastructure, not public LLMs, because we take client data seriously. Every application and renewal is reviewed by a licensed specialist before it reaches a regulator.

  • On Our Infrastructure

    Our models run on Cornerstone servers, not public chatbots. Your business information is not sent to a third-party LLM or used to train anyone else's product.

  • An Assistant, Not an Operator

    AI helps our licensing team start their research in the right place and surface the resources to look at. Specialists vet what comes back and make the call.

  • Less Duplicate Work for You

    Atlas figures out what data each form needs, then reuses what you have already given us so the same question does not come around twice. That is how approvals come faster.

Ready to Talk?

Cornerstone Licensing is a team of licensing specialists who have completed over 525,000 filings across all 50 states, US territories, and cities, with nearly 30 years of experience focused on a single problem: making multi-state licensing painless for financial services and fintech companies.

The Cornerstone Way

A repeatable method, from first filing to every renewal

Faster licenses, less effort on your side, fewer mistakes, and fewer headaches. It is the way we combine experienced specialists, intentional AI, and the Atlas platform across one sequenced process.

  1. Discover

    We connect you with independent attorneys to pin down which licenses you need.

  2. Prepare

    Your licensing specialist assembles each application; our software handles the repetitive work.

  3. Review

    That same specialist reviews every filing before it reaches a regulator.

  4. Approve

    We submit, track each application, and keep you posted until the license is granted.

  5. Renew

    We file every renewal ahead of its deadline in Atlas so licenses stay current.

Anyone can list five steps. Here is what makes ours hold up.

The shortcut

The common approach is to scrape the web for an answer and hope it is current. When the rules change, or the page was wrong to begin with, the mistake surfaces as a deficiency after the filing is in, when it costs the most time.

The Cornerstone Way

  • Specialists who know the answer

    Decades of licensing specialists, so the answer is right rather than guessed.

  • Trusted relationships with the regulator

    Direct, trusted relationships with regulators, so we ask the question instead of assuming the answer.

  • Living internal checklists

    Checklists that update the moment we learn something new, so deficiencies are caught before they happen.

100% Accepted by the second submission. Most are accepted on the first submission, the rest on the second, so you start operating sooner without avoidable back and forth.

Ready to Talk?

Let's Get You Licensed and Keep You There

Tell us where you operate and an expert will map out next steps.