Independent retirement planning for people at the transition, in Birmingham and by video across the Southeast.
or call 205-917-0788
Most people arrive at retirement with the pieces in different places: a portfolio here, a pension election there, a Social Security question nobody has answered yet. We put all of it into one plan you can see, and manage the portfolio as one part of that plan rather than the whole conversation.
Managed as one part of the plan, at a risk you can live with.
Life insurance and long-term care, sized to what the plan needs.
How all the accounts fit together as one set.
What you live on, and in what order.
Which accounts to draw from, and when.
When to claim, and what it means for your spouse.
Healthcare costs before Medicare, and the choices after.
What actually transfers, and to whom. Planning, not legal drafting.
You are retiring within about two years, or you are facing a decision that only comes once: a pension election, a 401(k) rollover, a spouse retiring first. You want to know whether the picture is in order before the paychecks stop.
You are not looking to change anything. You want a second read from someone who will look at the whole picture and tell you plainly what fits and what does not. A second read is just that: a read. Nothing changes unless you decide it should.
The picture is built with professional planning and risk-analysis software, not opinion. The tools let us see every account in one view, measure the risk the whole portfolio actually holds, and test the plan against the things that can go wrong, not only the things that go right. The judgment about what to do with what the tools show stays with you and with us, together.
David Giegel, CRPC, AWMA, spent 22 years at Verizon before becoming an advisor, and has run Hearthwell as an independent practice since December 2025. He knows what it is like to look at a retirement date on a calendar and wonder whether everything behind it has been thought through. That is the question he starts with.
We listen before we advise. Then we assemble the complete retirement picture: income, timing, taxes, healthcare, insurance, structure, the portfolio and the estate side, in one view built with professional planning and risk-analysis tools. The plan is agreed together, the portfolio is built to serve it, and both are reviewed as life changes.
A first conversation is about you, not your accounts. Bring what you have, or nothing at all. You leave with a clear read and no obligation.
Call David directly: 205-917-0788