Heartwood Wealth
Fee-Only Fiduciary (906) 555-0118 — a real person answers

Heartwood Wealth · Marquette, Michigan

We count in years, not quarters.

Thirty-one winters of income, planned one ring at a time. Heartwood Wealth is a fee-only fiduciary practice for people near or in retirement — deliberately small, deliberately patient. 150+ families — few enough to know every ring by name.

Start with a conversation Write to James

No obligation, no pitch. Call (906) 555-0118 — most days, it's James himself who picks up.

23 years of practice $0 commissions, ever 2 reviews a year, every year

Year 04 · The 2 a.m. questions

The questions that wake you at two in the morning

If you are 55 to 70 and saved carefully — usually a million dollars or more, built one year at a time — you already know them by heart. We put each one on paper and answer it with a number.

Q.01

Do we actually have enough?

Your plan maps every winter of income — thirty-one of them, if that is what your retirement holds. You see which dollars arrive in which year, before you spend the first one.

Q.02

If I go first, is my spouse provided for?

The center of the rings is protected first. Survivor income, Social Security timing, and account titling are settled while you are both still at the table.

Q.03

What will taxes take over a lifetime?

We plan taxes across decades, not Aprils — withdrawal order, Roth conversions, and what your accounts will cost you over thirty years rather than one.

Q.04

What if care costs more than we planned?

Healthcare and long-term care are priced into the rings before they are urgent, so one hard season does not redraw the whole map.

WHO WE SERVE — within ten years of retirement, either side · careful savers, usually $1M and up · delegators who would rather have their Saturdays back than a second job watching markets

Flat tonal illustration of a tree cross-section: thirty-one growth rings shifting from warm walnut at the center to pale frost-sage at the edge, with small survey notches cut across the rings.
FIG. 01 — INCOME, COUNTED IN WINTERS · RINGS 1–31 · TWO NOTCHES PER RING

“Thirty-one winters of income” is not a slogan. It is a row in your plan, with a dollar figure on every winter.

Year 09 · Six parts, opened one by one

The Bedrock System

One retirement income plan in six parts. It opens like a fan — and every part is reviewed twice a year, every year, for as long as you are a client.

  1. 01

    Income & cash flow

    Which dollars arrive in which month, for every winter on the map.

  2. 02

    Investments

    Owned in your own name at Fidelity, built to fund the plan — not to chase a quarter.

  3. 03

    Taxes

    Planned across a lifetime, not an April: withdrawal order, conversions, and timing.

  4. 04

    Protection

    Healthcare and long-term care, priced before they are urgent.

  5. 05

    Estate

    So your spouse’s ring map is already drawn, and your wishes are written down.

  6. 06

    The years ahead

    The whole plan, modeled and tracked in RightCapital, re-walked with you season after season.

Year 14 · Review 2 of 2

Two notches in every ring

Most plans are written once, admired, and shelved. Ours is reviewed twice a year, every year — and each review leaves a mark you can point to: what changed in your life, what changed in the law, what we adjusted, and what we deliberately left alone.

Twenty-three years in, the notches add up. Not a promise of attention — a record of it.

REVIEWS ARE STANDING APPOINTMENTS. THEY HAPPEN WHETHER MARKETS ARE QUIET OR NOT.

Flat tonal overhead illustration of a round wooden table with growth-ring grain: two cups of coffee, an open plan ledger, and folded reading glasses.

Year 18 · Which clock we keep

“Markets count in quarters. Families count in years. I decided early which clock Heartwood would keep.”
James Alder, CFP® · Founder

Fee-only means the fee you see is the only way this firm is paid. No commissions, no products, no quiet percentages — $0 in commissions across 23 years of practice.

When the only check comes from you, the only clock we keep is yours.

Year 21 · Held in your name

Your money never moves into ours.

Client assets stay in accounts titled in your own name at Fidelity. We can manage them; we cannot walk away with them. Your plan is kept and tended in RightCapital, and you can look at it any day you like.

We stay deliberately small — 150+ families nationwide — small enough that when you call, the person who answers already knows which winter your plan is in.

Flat tonal illustration of three deed-style documents fanned in a stack, the front page marked with a sage band and a growth-ring seal with two clay notches.

Year 23 · Still answering the phone

The next ring is yours.

Twenty-three years in, we still plan one family, one year, one ring at a time. Yours would start the way all of them have — with a conversation, not a pitch.

Call (906) 555-0118 james@heartwoodwealth.com

No obligation, no pitch. Most days, it's James himself who picks up.

YEAR 24 · LEFT OPEN ON PURPOSE