Client Success Stories

Robert was working for a company acquired by a private equity firm. He was offered a 1% equity stake in the company as part of his compensation package. Robert had to take action in the first 30 days after the grant, which led to significant tax savings. Upon the sale of the company, his tax savings exceeded $2 million approximately four years later. Robert began working for another private equity company later on and was offered additional equity shares where we repeated the process, again, within 30 days of grant. The estimated tax savings based upon conservative estimates for the next sale range from $2.5 - $3 million.

These investments are tax-managed in a customized portfolio to offset concentration risk. Robert is using this money for charitable causes and extended family support. His goal is to help more people and communities in need, which is funded through additional tax savings. All of this furthers his family’s personal and lifetime impact goals.

We offer privacy, asset protection, and a strong value priority framework to help newly wealthy clients navigate the challenges with significant wealth.

Disclaimer: this content is portraying a hypothetical case study and not based on actual individual client results.

Mark is a client who works in IT at a major public company and earned incentive stock options, non-qualified stock options, restricted share units, performance share units, and participated in the employee stock purchase plan, along with a non-qualified deferred compensation plan. As you can see, this is an overwhelming number of choices, with ongoing decisions, actions, and rules for each plan. There are also specific rules for him as a company insider. He and his wife were also in the highest tax bracket.

Once we created a comprehensive plan for their primary goals to ensure the highest probability of success, we began to layer in additional planning around their "what-if" goals. Over time, their family and charitable goals were strategically funded with tax efficiency and within his company’s open trading windows. We evaluated his high stock concentration, along with his career prospects. They had the capacity to hold the stock, since their primary goals were funded, and understood the significant risk in concentrated stock in his own employer. The decision was made to hold more stock than otherwise is suggested.

We built customized, tax-efficient investment portfolios outside to offset some of the single-stock risk. Within a few years, the company was purchased at a premium and they were able to fund their highest goals. Now they are thinking bigger and planning for more significance.

Successful equity compensation necessitates changing every aspect of your financial plan and thinking differently.

Disclaimer: this content is portraying a hypothetical case study and not based on actual individual client results.

James was offered a position with a new high-growth, high-risk tech venture that was evaluating his existing stock options, restricted share units, and performance share units versus what they were offering. He originally thought his existing company shares were valued at approximately $1 million based upon his view of his online Stock Compensation Portal.

We read all the documents from the equity compensation plans to understand and share their significance with the client. We calculated the true forfeit value that he would actually be leaving on the table if he left his current company. It was $3.5 million. James went back to the prospective company and asked if they were able to get closer to matching this loss.

They raised their offer, but in the end, he decided to stay put. Good thing he did, as he was able to realize his gains from equity compensation greater than $6 million within two years. He avoided a $2.5 million misstep, or was it $5 million?

It pays to have an expert available to review these documents for you, especially when changing employers. Save your valuable time and money—allow us to review your plans.

Disclaimer: this content is portraying a hypothetical case study and not based on actual individual client results.

Emma works in tech and called to say her private company was being acquired by a Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC. It was her first exposure to equity compensation, which for most can be a shock. There is a lot to learn, understand, apply, plan for, monitor and act upon.

From the SPAC announcement on, everything changed. A simple goal, to pay off her and her husband’s $400k mortgage balance, turned into some different, more ambitious goals over time. The process continues to evolve as the company is now public, in a lock-up period, and we are still making decisions due to the stock’s volatility. Our planning will continue through the lock-up period and beyond to help Emma and her husband make decisions to support and further secure retirement, perhaps early.

One of the questions we like to determine with our clients is this: how does equity compensation apply to your situation?

Disclaimer: this content is portraying a hypothetical case study and not based on actual individual client results.