COUNTRY Financial®

At COUNTRY Financial, on this #NationalInternDay, we're grateful for all the new thinking, talent, and hands-on help interns bring to our colleagues and clients. Today, CEO Jim Jacobs and SVP and Chief Risk Officer Carl Bridges had the chance to meet in person with a group of aspiring risk professionals to learn more about their experiences with us. We also celebrated our place on the Top 100 list of https://lnkd.in/gGqEbT5P #ExperienceMore Mansi Nimje, Sean Green, Shreni Jain, Claire Qin, Jane Liu, Anusha Verma Chandraju, Morgan Runyan, Katlyn Eversgerd, Margaret Xiao, Alexis Torres, Christian Castillo, Katherine Mueller

Congratulations to the COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab interns for earning the award for Skillful Execution at the University of Illinois Research Park Hackathon! These innovative students created a platform called GeoGroove, which connects music and location, during a 15-hour hackathon competition. The COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab is an immersive data science and technology program developed in partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Interns work on projects that focus on: · Creating new technology by working with AI, cloud computing and other tools. · Merging classroom and real-world experience to put prototypes into production. · Enhancing technical skills and growing soft skills needed for corporate environments. · Working in cross-functional teams to learn with peers from all walks of life. Learn more at DigitaLab - COUNTRY Financial Pictured left to right: Elijah Mock, Ben Park, Shivam Patel, Abhi Ramakrishnan, Shiyuan Liu Julia Hart, EdD #ExperienceMore #TechnologyInternship #InsuranceCareers #InsuranceInternship

COUNTRY Claims teams have been working diligently to serve clients in the Midwest who were impacted by last week's severe storms. Jesse Kohlbecker, Vice President of Claims and Client Services, shared tips for clients who need to file claims, and says events like these are a reminder to check in on your insurance coverages in this article in FarmWeek: "I encourage all friends, family and clients to meet with their insurance agent at a minimum, annually,” he said. “Situations and people’s properties change. People make upgrades and they add different things to their homes. It’s so important that you sit down with your rep and really talk about the coverages you have, and the coverages you might need.” #ExperienceMore Illinois Farm Bureau

Paying for college isn’t easy. How you choose to save for college depends a lot on your unique situation. Luckily, there are multiple options available to help you pay for a child, a loved one, or your own education. Here are a few things you need to know: ◾ ◾ The benefits of an UGMA/UTMA ◾ ◾ Creating an account for your child under the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) or the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) is a common way to save money for college. As the account owner, you’d control the fund until your child turns 18 or 21, depending on what state you live in. The account would then be turned over to them. A UGMA or UTMA can be a good choice if you’re looking for a variety of ways to fund the account and the ability to use the money for things other than education. ◾ ◾ A Roth IRA ◾ ◾ A Roth IRA can be used to pay for qualified education expenses without the normal 10 percent federal tax penalty charged when you withdraw money early. A Roth IRA might be good if you want the option of having a retirement fund already in place if all the money isn’t used for education. There are two ways you can use a Roth IRA for education purposes: 1️⃣ - Your child opens a Roth IRA - Your child can open a Roth IRA if they have earned income. Since Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax money, the child’s contributions won’t be taxed when the money is withdrawn. The good thing is, the usual 10 percent tax penalty on earnings withdrawn before age 59 ½ is waived when the distribution is used for qualified higher education expenses. 2️⃣ - You open a Roth IRA - You can open your own Roth IRA and use the assets to pay for qualified education expenses. You can pay those expenses for your child, grandchild, your spouse or yourself. Again, you won’t pay the 10 percent penalty, but you will have to pay taxes on earnings withdrawn before age 59 ½. Contributions can be withdrawn at any time without tax or penalty. Interested in learning more about your college-savings options? Visit https://lnkd.in/gn7k64Yt -- Investment management, retirement, trust and planning services provided by COUNTRY Trust Bank®.

We are honored to recognize COUNTRY technology employee Bill Keltner, who recently took lifesaving action to help a neighbor. Keltner was stepping away for lunch when he noticed a person’s legs sticking out of a bush between his and his neighbor’s yard. Thinking it was his neighbor doing some gardening, he walked over to say hello. Keltner quickly realized it was not his neighbor, but a young woman who was face down in the bush. Drawing upon previous experience, he sprang into action. A trained combat medic in the Army and a boy scout for six years, Keltner dropped down and rolled the woman to her side to check her breathing when she started to seize. “I remained calm, kept her on her side to keep her airway open, and immediately called 911,” said Keltner. He continued life-saving steps until emergency personnel arrived. His calm demeanor and swift response were crucial during those critical moments before paramedics arrived. Keltner’s story is a testament to living our vision beyond the workplace and into our daily lives. “We are incredibly thankful to have Bill as part of our team and grateful for the reminder of how powerful individual actions can be,” said Bill’s leader Joanna Kirchgessner. Thank you, Bill, for serving others in our community! #Experiencemore

COUNTRY Financial self-service capabilities including online bill pay, claims submissions, and access to documents have been fully restored. However, due to the continued global outage, we are still seeing longer than average hold times for phone support. We apologize in advance for things taking longer than normal and appreciate your patience.

Like others, COUNTRY Financial is experiencing some outages with our systems. Some of our employees and reps can help clients, but this is causing longer hold times and disruptions. We apologize in advance for things taking longer than they normally would and appreciate your patience. 

What are our new Claims apprentices most excited about in their new roles at COUNTRY? They say: - Tuition assistance - Meeting new people - A chance to learn new things - A chance to go back to college - Opportunity to help people - Having a steady paycheck - Opportunity to pursue more education   Jesse Kohlbecker, Vice President of Claims and Client Services, says “Our Claims Apprentices will embark on an 18-month journey where they will devote time to Claims production and intentional development through existing Claims School curriculum, industry designation training, Heartland Community College course work, and job shadows. I’m excited to welcome this group to COUNTRY!” Want to learn more about other open claims roles at COUNTRY? Visit https://lnkd.in/gEvmytEF #ExperienceMore #InsuranceCareers #ClaimsCareers #ClaimsJobs #InsuranceClaimsJobs #InsuranceClaimsCareers 

Three times and counting! For the third year in a row, COUNTRY Life has been recognized on Ward’s 50 list of top performing life insurance companies for 2024. This award is given for outstanding financial results in the areas of safety, consistency and performance over a five-year period (2019-2023). Get in touch with a local rep today to find out how you can protect what matters most. https://lnkd.in/gfQmsqrT

Job opportunities! COUNTRY Financial currently has openings in Field Claims. Positions are available in Illinois, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota and Oregon. Opportunities include both property adjusters and auto damage appraisers. It’s a chance to embark on a meaningful career where you can help people and businesses recover when the unexpected occurs. Learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/gEvmytEF #ExperienceMore