The winning smiles of Arie and Stephen Korving are just the first indication of the kindness that runs deep into their characters. They are dedicated family men, and caring stewards of their community. They want to help people take care of their own families by being friends that give honest advice about the big decisions.

Arie is Chairman of Korving and Company. For over 30 years, he has been guiding his clients down the road to financial security. Sitting down with his clients, he learns of their goals and dreams, and then patiently and meticulously develops a road map to get them where they want to be. Before founding Korving and Company, Arie was First Vice President for a major global investment firm and also served in a number of management positions with General Electric. He is a Certified Financial Planner.

Arie's son, Stephen, is President of Korving and Company. His enthusiastic approach to financial planning is buffered by nearly two decades of sound, conservative principles. Stephen helped advise multi-billion dollar portfolios for non-profits, endowments, and wealthy families at a leading investment management consulting firm. He holds a business degree from Virginia Tech with a minor in finance and a concentration in risk management. Like his dad, Stephen is a Certified Financial Planner.

Korving and Company was named the Suffolk Small Business of the Year for 2015 by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

Taking retirement will be one of the biggest decisions a person can make in their lifetime. "Is it the right time? Will I have enough money to maintain the lifestyle I would like?" are just a few of the questions people commonly ask. That's where Arie and Stephen Korving, the father and son team of Korving and Company, come in. They have the experience, knowledge and state-of-the-art tools to help advise their clients when to take that all-important leap.

"We have decades of experience in retirement planning and investing, and we enjoy helping people," Stephen explains. "The beauty of our program is that a client can come to us without making a major investment commitment on their part." He continues, "There are two stand-alone aspects of our business: planning and managing. We will help people to develop a plan even if their funds aren't invested with us. Ideally, we would like to establish a relationship before they are contemplating retirement. We'd really like the time to build their trust and delve into their particular situation. As retirement planning experts, independent of where a client's money is, we are willing and able to provide a plan without any strings attached."

"Locating an expert who specializes in retirement planning is the start of the process, and a solid financial retirement plan is the key to being able to retire with confidence," Arie adds. "As Certified Financial Planners™ (CFP®), we only charge a project fee for the retirement planning portion of our program. We use goal based financial planning software to analyze a client's overall financial picture. We are able to put many different aspects of a client's financial future into play: Social Security, pensions, inheritances, age, etc. This allows us to offer a probability of success for a comfortable retirement."

Korving and Company clients receive a printed copy of their plan as well as access to the interactive planning program online; this allows a client to adjust their numbers if their situation changes and still make a well informed decision. Hardcopy detailed feedback can be very helpful - in some cases it can be a 10 year process before one actually retires.

Stephen and Arie know the questions to ask, the traps that people may fall into and all of the things that can go wrong without careful planning. Asking the proper questions is very important, such as "What goes into planning for retirement? Where are they financially now? When should they start drawing Social Security?"




"Most people are not professional investors and they can make mistakes that can negatively impact their financial future; or at least delay the possibility of retirement to 76 instead of 56," Arie explains. "As Registered Investment Advisors (RIA), clients come to us to make their investments for them. They simply want their money to grow over time via the active management of their portfolio. Because of our over 40 years of combined experience, they expect us to attain a respectable rate of growth, and they trust us to do a good job."

"We are very consistent and steady in the way we handle portfolios; it's a  process oriented system. If we were a baseball team, we would be the "on base guys,' " Stephen smiles. "We would be bunting, taking walks, hitting singles and doubles; very rarely hitting homeruns and very rarely striking out. Slowly accumulating the gains over time really adds up, and we are very patient. We monitor the results very closely and provide regular performance reports to each of our clients. We make sure that we get the job done because our clients are trusting us to do that."
As independent RIAs, Stephen and Arie's plan is free-standing, which means one is free to implement the plan's recommendations on their own. If they change their mind later and want the firm to manage the funds as well, clients are told up front what fees are involved and how much time it will take to gather the information. "We love it when we have a planning client come in and ask us to manage their money as well, but we don't require that," Stephen notes.

As part of Korving and Company's services, counseling and guidance is offered to anyone who may have suddenly come into a large sum of money and needs advice on how to handle it. If an individual simply wants a second opinion and would like their current plan checked, Stephen and Arie can help with that, too.

"It's important to know that in order to get a degree of assurance that retirement will actually work, and that one can maintain the kind of lifestyle they would like, they need a plan!" Stephen emphasizes.

Even though Stephen and Arie work together, they enjoy spending quality time together, too, especially for family dinners on Sunday. Stephen is involved with several community groups as well - he is on the Portsmouth Museum's Foundation Board of Directors, which supports all of the public museums in Portsmouth. He is on the Board of the Southeastern Virginia Community Foundation, and the board of The Portsmouth Partnership and Lead Hampton Roads.

"Making time for things that matter is very important to me," Stephen affirms. "Being involved in the community and being able to offer my help is very rewarding. I'm thrilled that I've met and worked with so many great people!"