Retirement planning
Coordinate savings, Social Security, pensions, and spending into a practical income strategy.
GrapeFinancial planning that starts with your life
Bring your retirement into focus.
Fiduciary advice for income, investments, taxes, healthcare, and legacy decisions.
More life. Less financial noise.
Meet AlexPersonal guidance, built around retirement.
FiduciaryAdvice centered on your interests
20+ yearsExperience in financial services
IndependentPersonalized planning and portfolios
Retirement-focusedGuidance for the decisions ahead
Our mission
Helping retirees make confident decisions with less complexity.
Grape is an independent fiduciary planning firm for people who want their financial life organized, explained, and cared for over time.
The whole retirement picture
Planning that connects the moving parts.
Retirement decisions are connected. Income, investments, taxes, healthcare, and estate priorities should be reviewed together, not one at a time.
See how we planInvestment management
Align your portfolio with your time horizon, cash-flow needs, and comfort with risk.
Tax-aware decisions
Review withdrawals, Roth conversions, gains, and giving decisions alongside your tax professional.
A good place to begin
Is Grape the right fit for you?
You are approaching retirement or already retired.
You want investment management and planning working together.
You value a long-term relationship with one trusted advisor.
The first call is simply a chance to talk through what is changing and decide whether working together makes sense.
Schedule a conversationWhat to expect
A simple path forward.
Start with a conversation, build the plan, then keep it current.
Start with your life
Share what is changing, what feels unclear, and what you want retirement to make possible.
Build your roadmap
We organize the major decisions and show how they fit together.
Navigate together
Your plan stays active as markets, tax rules, opportunities, and your life continue to change.
“Very knowledgeable. Very honest.”
“Alexander is very professional and makes himself available always for questions/advice.”
“Our host and all staff were so friendly and helpful.”
“I would like to express my appreciation for the fine work Alexander Newman has done for me...”
Excerpts from public Google reviews. No compensation was provided for inclusion. Reviews reflect individual experiences, may not represent every client's experience, and are not a guarantee of future results. Reviewer relationships with Grape were not independently verified. Rating and review count shown as of August 19, 2026.
The Sonoma Plan™
A retirement plan you can revisit.
What it does
The Sonoma Plan™ organizes your retirement decisions into a practical planning picture, then keeps it current as life changes.
Clear enough to use. Flexible enough to update.
A full-service virtual firmRetirement decisions, organized and cared for over time.Read what clients are saying
How Sonoma worksFrom first conversation to ongoing care
Get acquainted
We start with what is changing, what matters most, and what retirement needs to support.
Organize the picture
We gather accounts, income sources, taxes, insurance, estate details, property, and key contacts.
Build the Sonoma Plan
We connect the moving parts into a plan you can use, understand, and revisit.
Put it to work
We help implement what makes sense and coordinate with your CPA, attorney, and other professionals when appropriate.
Stay with you
We revisit the plan as markets, laws, health, spending, and priorities change.
01Use your wealth well
Turn savings into income for the retirement you want to live.
02Know what you own
Bring accounts, benefits, and planning decisions into view.
03Prepare your family
Make future transitions easier to understand.
A plan for today, kept ready for tomorrow.
20+years in finance
Meet the founder
Clear advice from someone who listens first.
Alex Newman founded Grape to give retirees a more personal, understandable wealth-management experience as retirement evolves.
After more than two decades in financial services, Alex believes the best planning relationships combine disciplined investment thinking with honest conversations about the life a client wants to live.
Alex Newman Founder, Grape
Meet with Alex Featured on YouTube
Retirement ideas, explained simply.
Watch Alex explain markets, income, taxes, and planning choices in plain English.
Watch Grape Common questions
Questions before you book.
Short answers to the things people usually want to know before starting.
Working together
Who is Grape a good fit for?+
Grape is built for people approaching retirement or already retired who want their investments, income, taxes, healthcare, and family priorities considered together. Many clients want a personal advisor relationship without needing to drive to an office.
What happens on the first call?+
The first conversation is not a sales pitch or a full financial plan. It is a chance to talk through what is changing, what feels unclear, what retirement needs to support, and whether Grape feels like the right fit.
How do meetings work?+
Each meeting has a clear purpose, whether we are getting acquainted, reviewing the plan, or making a specific decision. You will know what we are covering before the conversation begins.
Planning and investments
What is included in The Sonoma Plan?+
The Sonoma Plan brings your accounts, retirement income, investments, taxes, healthcare considerations, insurance, estate priorities, and family transition needs into one coordinated planning picture.
Do you manage investments too?+
Yes. Investment management can be part of the relationship when appropriate. The goal is to align your portfolio with your income needs, risk comfort, tax picture, and long-term retirement plan.
Do you provide tax or legal advice?+
We provide tax-aware and estate-planning coordination, but we do not prepare tax returns or draft legal documents. We encourage clients to review specific tax and legal strategies with their CPA and attorney.
Fees and fiduciary
What does fiduciary mean?+
As a fiduciary, Grape is required to put clients' interests first when providing investment advice. We also believe clear explanations and transparent conversations are essential to a strong advisory relationship.
How do you get paid?+
Fees depend on the scope of the advisory relationship and are explained before you decide to work with us. We want you to understand what you are paying, what is included, and what ongoing service looks like.
Where are client assets held?+
When Grape provides investment management, client assets are held with an independent custodian. Grape does not take custody of client funds directly.
Ready when you are