You earned the equity. Let’s plan it around your life.
RSUs, ISOs, ESPP, QSBS, 83(b). The tax swings hard on timing, and the bigger question is what a concentrated position means for your goals. We model the decisions before you make them, all year, so the tax and the investing actually work together.
What we see
Before any advice, we read the whole picture. Your grants, your holdings, your goals, and years of record. Then we name what’s actually there. A few of the things we routinely turn up when pay shifts to equity:
Equity compensation timing
What this is. Recognizing a year of vesting in one or two quarters can push income across a rate threshold; pacing the same total changes the result. Timing is the lever.
Why it comes up. Plenty of RSU income lands in two concentrated quarters, taxed without a second thought.
ISO exercise & AMT
What this is. Exercising incentive stock options can start the clock toward long-term treatment, but it also triggers AMT on the bargain element, and the cash to cover it is real.
Why it comes up. If you hold vested ISOs in the money, the exercise window and the AMT cliff are both live.
QSBS qualification
What this is. Stock in a qualifying small business can exclude a large share of the gain at sale under §1202, if the holding period and company tests are met, and met early.
Why it comes up. If your shares might qualify, the conditions are best locked in well before any sale.
How we plan
We build the plan around your equity and your life, what to do, in what order, and which version fits your cash and how much risk you want to carry. There’s usually more than one good way. We show you the trade-offs; you choose.
Working with your other professionals
You’ve probably already got people in your corner, a company stock-plan portal, maybe an attorney. We coordinate with them directly, so the tax plan, your equity calendar, and the investing side line up. You’re never the one relaying messages between everyone.
Nothing leaves our hands without your say-so.
Where things stand, all year
Once the plan’s in motion, you can see where everything is, what’s done, what’s underway, what’s next, without re-explaining your situation every spring. The work builds on itself instead of starting over.
Tell us how you got here.
Reach out and we’ll talk through where you are and where you’re headed. We get to know your equity along the way, but the real work is about you. We help what you’ve built keep growing without changing who you are. The Gnomon Diagnostic is where it starts.