Suffolk man’s book helps preserve estates

During a quarter-century in the financial planning industry, one thing Arie Korving has noticed is that clients age at about the same rate that he does.

“As time went on, I have gotten older and clients have gotten older,” he said Tuesday in the boardroom of his North Suffolk-based firm Korving & Co., where he and son Stephen Korving offer advice on investment strategies, asset management and financial planning.

“As a result, I had the opportunity to basically work with them in the area of estate planning, taking care of them when someone in the family died.”

Arie Korving has written a book and accompanying workbook: “Before I Go: Preparing Your Affairs For Your Heirs.”

It’s basically a distillation of his experience helping clients financially plan for the day when they are no longer around. Information is gleaned from experience that also included a stint with UBS.

“This book has been in gestation for probably well over a decade,” Korving said.

“I was with a number of large global investment firms before forming our company. They had regulations really designed to make sure only a relatively small number of people ever published anything, or even talked to the newspaper; I was not actually able to publish this until I went out on my own.”

Korving said he had noticed that clients, after the death of a family breadwinner, primarily talked about “wills and trusts,” which, he added, “takes care of a lot of the big things, but doesn’t take into consideration a lot of little things.

“When a husband passes on, a wife quite often doesn’t know all she needs to know about investments. She doesn’t, quite often, know what her income is going to be.”

A lot of widows — or widowers — don’t even know how much money they are going to have to live off and how the bills are paid, Korving said.

Chapters in Korving’s book deal with health care decisions during a “final illness,” planning for a funeral, financial accounting, financial management, balancing income and expenses, and reviewing plans annually.

The accompanying workbook allows one to create a record of their plans for surviving family.

“What this book is really designed to do is give people an opportunity to do that pre-planning — put down on paper … what the income is going to be, what are the expenses of running a household, (and) where are all the family’s investments,” Korving said.

“Those are the kinds of things wills and trusts really don’t go into.”

Both books are listed at $14.95, but prices vary on Amazon.com and from Barnes and Noble. They are also available from Korving’s office, Suite 800, 1510 Breezeport Way.

Call 638-5490 for more information.