Planned by the ring · Reviewed by the season
We count in years, not quarters.
Fee-only fiduciary retirement planning for people near or in retirement — deliberately small, deliberately patient. One year, one ring at a time. 150+ families — few enough to know every ring by name.
No obligation, no pitch. Call (906) 555-0118 — most days, it's James himself who picks up.
- 23 years of practice
- Fee-only fiduciary
- 2 reviews a year, every year
Six parts. One plan. A ring at a time.
Evaluation, income, investments, taxes, security, estate — your plan sits at the center, the heartwood, and each part adds a ring around it, with two review notches cut into every one. The full year-by-year story lives on the process page.
two review notches per ring — twice a year, every year
Built for people who built it slowly.
Every relationship here starts the same way: a plan drawn for one household — yours — then tended season after season, because money decisions made without a map tend to wander. The people who fit us best are professionals and executives close to retirement, or already in it, who'd rather hand the tending to someone who does it full-time.
You'll likely recognize yourself here:
- Within ten years of retirement — on either side of it.
- A portfolio of $1 million or more, built by doing a great job of saving.
- A delegator — you'd rather have your Saturdays back than work a second job watching markets.
For scale: a nest egg like that sits well above the Marquette County median household's — a lead built one year at a time, the way rings are. Our job is making sure it holds through every winter that's left.
150+ families — few enough to know every ring by name.
Growth you can count — no projections, no promises, just the record so far.
More of the story, page by page.
Your clock, not the market's.
The 2 a.m. questions, the founder's answer to them, and what we hold to — including why your money never moves into ours.
Read why Heartwood exists →Five people, deliberately few.
James, Anne, Robert, Lily, and Sam — a team small enough that the person who answers your call already knows your plan.
Meet the team →Questions before the first ring.
Do I have enough? How are you paid? Are you a fiduciary? Plain answers to the questions people ask before the first call.
Read the FAQ →The next ring is yours.
Twenty-three years on Front Street, and we still plan one family, one year, one ring at a time. Yours would start the way every one of them has — with a conversation, not a pitch.
No obligation, no pitch. Most days, it's James himself who picks up.
Fee-only fiduciary planning
Advice in your best interest, 100% of the time — that's the obligation we carry.
One transparent fee
A share of the assets in our care, drawn from the accounts themselves — there on every statement. What you see is the whole of how we're paid.
Assets in your name at Fidelity
Third-party custody, with your plan built and tracked in RightCapital — open to you any day you like.