Your equity runs on their clock. Your plan runs ahead of it.
Grants vest, windows open, elections expire — mostly on dates set by your employer and the tax code rather than by you. The planning has to be done before the date, or it is not planning.
The questions our clients often ask
You’re an equity-compensated executive, so you may relate to some of the questions our equity-comp clients typically ask.
Exercise now, or hold?
The answer turns on which tax year has room in it, not on where the stock price is. Exercising into a year with AMT headroom, or spreading across two, is often worth more than timing the market — and unlike the market, the headroom is a number we can calculate in the spring.
of room below the Roth phaseout, protected by raising pre-tax deferrals
Illustrative · not a promiseWhat will this vest do to my tax bill?
We model the vest against your withholding, which is usually set too low on supplemental wages, and correct the shortfall during the year rather than letting it surface as a penalty.
Should I make an 83(b) election?
Thirty days, one form, no second chance. We work the math on today's value against expected growth and your capacity to pay tax now, and give you a decision rather than a menu.
How much of my net worth should sit in company stock?
We quantify the concentration and then price the tax cost of unwinding it at several different paces, so the trade-off between risk and tax is explicit and the choice stays yours.
Why was my RSU sale taxed twice?
We check the basis your broker reported. A cost basis of zero on shares you already paid ordinary income tax on is common, and it is correctable — including on returns already filed.
Is my ESPP sale qualifying?
We track the two dates that decide it and tell you what waiting is worth in dollars before you sell, so the holding period is a choice instead of an accident.
What happens to my equity if I leave?
We read the plan documents for exercise windows and the tax that follows, well ahead of any resignation date. Post-termination windows are short and rarely what people assume.
Most planning quietly assumes children. Ours assumes nothing.
A great deal of standard advice is built around dependents, education funding, and leaving an estate to the next generation. If that is your life, those pieces belong in the plan. If it is not, the defaults are rarely what you would have chosen — beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, and who is actually named to act for you all need answering differently.
We ask, once, and then plan accordingly. It is not a separate service and it is not a separate conversation.
Start with a conversation
A chance for us to learn about you and what you are trying to accomplish, and for you to hear how we work and what the process actually entails. Then we decide together whether it is a fit and whether we can handle the work. We look forward to hearing your story.