finStream Unveils Groundbreaking Docuseries “The First Year of Retirement”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
finStream Unveils Groundbreaking Docuseries ‘The First Year of Retirement,’
Exploring the Unspoken Emotional and Practical Realities Beyond Financial
Planning
Hosted by Robert Powell, the 12-part serialized production chronicles 40-year wealth
management veteran Lisa Featherngill, CPA/PFS, as she puts four decades of
professional advice to the ultimate test: her own retirement.
BOSTON, MA — finStream, the digital streaming network dedicated to actionable
financial intelligence, today announced the premiere of its new original serialized
docuseries, The First Year of Retirement. Hosted by award-winning financial journalist
Robert Powell, CFP®, RMA®, the biweekly, 12-episode series offers a candid, real-
time chronicle of what actually happens after the career ends, the work laptop is packed
away, and the badge goes back.
While traditional retirement content focuses almost exclusively on accumulation math,
decumulation strategies, and tax projections, The First Year of Retirement examines
something the numbers cannot fully capture: the human experience of the transition.
The series follows l, CPA/PFS, a veteran wealth strategist who spent
four decades advising individuals and families on some of their most consequential
financial decisions. Featherngill, who led wealth planning at several financial institutions,
and past chair of the AICPA Personal Financial Specialist Credential Committee, retired
on February 1, 2026. After a career spent helping others prepare financially and
personally for life after work, she is now experiencing those decisions from the other
side of the desk.
“I spent my career helping clients prepare for and navigate retirement, but minute three
into my first tape, the truth came out: I would have been my own worst client,” said
Featherngill. “I spent decades telling clients not to check their accounts every day, yet I
found myself opening the Monarch app three times a day just checking if my net worth
dipped below my mental floor. You can solve the math on paper, but turning off the
paycheck, letting go of your professional identity, and renegotiating your daily routine is
an entirely different reality.”
Filmed in an intimate, seated interview format with runtimes between 7 and 10 minutes
per episode, each installment tackles one calendar month of Featherngill’s transition:
The Shock of Day One: Facing the abrupt 2:00 a.m. panic, guilt over displaced
team members, and turning in corporate equipment virtually via UPS during a
snowstorm.
The Structure Vacuum: Waking up to an empty calendar on the first Monday
morning, feeling on the verge of falling apart, and rushing to Best Buy to
purchase a PC and configure Outlook just to recreate familiar corporate
scaffolding.
The Decumulation Hesitation: The psychological jolt of the first month without a
direct deposit, wrestling with annuities versus balance-sheet liquidity, and the
urge to claim Social Security early just to see cash coming through the door.
Permission to Spend: Struggling for two months over whether to book a bucket-
list European river cruise to Lake Como, rerunning Monte Carlo simulations, and
confronting the reality that permission to spend is a deeply personal choice rather
than a spreadsheet calculation.
The Guardrails & The Health Care Gap: Navigating bridge insurance and
Medicare timing without an HR department, while weighing whether the urge to
consult is driven by purpose or fear of becoming irrelevant.
Household Dynamics & Social Circles: Living through the "gap year" when
one spouse retires while the other works, realizing which work friendships stay
intact once the calls stop, and answering the dinner-party question: “So, what do
you do?”
A signature anchor of each episode is the segment “What I told clients,” punctuated
on-screen by paired teal and bronze cards—TOLD and DID—pinpointing where
textbook financial strategies clash with human behavior.
The docuseries also features “The Curveball,” an unresolved, live-action storyline.
Eight months into retirement, an unexpected project offer from Featherngill's former
boss arrives, testing her self-imposed retirement guardrails, her part-time boundaries,
and her identity in real time as the production calendar catches up to the present day.
“The financial industry often treats retirement as a math puzzle with a definitive finish
line,” said host and series creator Robert Powell. “With The First Year of Retirement,
we’re pulling back the curtain on the behavioral biases, loss of identity, and domestic
renegotiations that no Monte Carlo simulation can solve. Lisa’s vulnerability provides
pre-retirees and practicing financial planners with an authentic field guide to the human
side of retirement.”
New episodes air biweekly on Wednesdays across finStream platforms, connected
streaming television apps, and digital channels.
For more information, episode guides, and streaming access, visit finStream.tv.
About finStream
FinStream is a digital streaming platform that sits at the intersection of financial literacy and financial technology, delivering expert-led short-form video programming, podcasts and financial planning tools designed to help people make better financial decisions. Available on Amazon Fire TV, Apple, Roku, YouTube, Spotify and other major streaming platforms, FinStream features hundreds of educational videos and interviews with leading experts in personal finance, retirement planning and investing, along with a growing library of financial planning applications and calculators. FinStream’s mission is to make high-quality financial education and decision-support tools more accessible to individuals, families and financial professionals. With over 900 educational videos, finStream TV connects you with top experts on everything money-related.
About Lisa Featherngill, CPA/PFS
Lisa Featherngill is an accomplished wealth planning executive with four decades of
leadership experience in tax and wealth management. She previously served as Senior
Vice President and National Director of Strategic Wealth & Business Advisory at
Comerica and a past chair of the AICPA Personal Financial Specialist Credential
Committee. Now semi-retired, she remains active in the profession through service on
the AICPA National Accreditation Commission and industry award panels, as well as
speaking on wealth planning topics.