What executive planning actually is
Executive financial planning is the work of fitting a complicated paycheck into a coherent life. The complications are not abstract. They are the specific items on the comp plan — the RSUs, the ISOs, the NQSOs, the ESPP, the deferred comp election, the SERP, the change-in-control provision — and the ways those items collide with the federal and New Jersey tax codes at the worst possible moments.
Most of the executives we meet with do not need help picking mutual funds. They need help reading their own pay stub. They need a written plan for what to do with the next vest, when to sell, when to hold, when to convert, and how to keep one bad decision in March from costing six figures in the following April.
Executive planning is one slice of a larger map of the people we sit down with most often.
The questions executives actually bring us
The questions are technical but the stakes are personal. Every one of these has a wrong answer that costs real money, and every one of them gets handed to people who were trained as engineers, lawyers, marketers, or scientists rather than as tax planners.
- I just got my RSU vesting schedule. How much should I sell on the day it vests, and how much should I hold?
- Should I exercise my ISOs this year, and if so, what does the alternative minimum tax do to me?
- I have eight years of company stock built up in my 401(k) and my brokerage account. How do I bring that risk down without paying a fortune in capital gains?
- The deferred comp election is due in November. What payout schedule am I locking in, and what happens to those dollars if the company runs into trouble?
- I am being offered a severance package. What is actually in it and what should I be negotiating?
Where most advice gets executives wrong
The standard playbook is to hand the executive over to the brokerage where the company stock plan is held and let the same firm sell them retail mutual funds on the side. The conflict is obvious in writing and invisible in practice. The brokerage gets paid more if the executive holds the company stock and pays the higher trading and management fees. The executive gets a free quarterly review and no real plan.
The other failure mode is the firm that treats every executive like a high-net-worth client and runs them through the same boilerplate trust-and-estate template they use for retirees. That deck does not solve the immediate problem, which is usually a vest landing in six weeks and a tax bill nobody has modeled.
We do something quieter. We read the actual plan documents. We model the next ten years of vests against the brackets they will fall into. We tell you what to sell on vesting day and what to hold, and we tell you why in numbers you can verify yourself.
The single largest lever we have on most executive balance sheets is the tax treatment of where dollars sit. Our page on why the tax wrapper around an account matters as much as the account itself walks through the mechanics for households with concentrated stock.
The work we do for executives
We start with the complete compensation picture — base salary, cash bonus, RSU schedule, option grants, ESPP, deferred comp, retirement plans, severance terms. Most executives have never seen all of it on one page. The first version of that page is usually the most useful document we produce.
From there, the work splits into three running tracks. The first track is the equity itself — what to sell, when, and why. The second track is the tax planning that has to happen before December to keep the next April from being a surprise. The third track is the longer arc — concentration risk, retirement account design, the bridge from the executive years into whatever comes after.
All three tracks live inside one written plan that gets updated whenever the comp plan does, which for most executives is at least once a year.
When the equity stack and the deferred comp election push net worth into a different orbit, the planning has to follow. We have written separately about what changes when the household balance sheet crosses into seven figures.
The departure scenario is the one most executives never plan for until the conversation arrives. The mechanics of moving an old plan cleanly are covered in our notes on handling a rollover from an old employer plan without the paperwork migraine.
The April surprise is mostly a planning problem, not a tax problem. Avoiding it lives inside a year-round tax conversation that treats the return as a byproduct rather than a deadline.
Disability is the underrated risk inside an executive package. The group policy from work usually caps out far below the actual income — a gap covered in our piece on why long-term disability coverage is the policy high earners most often get wrong.
What working with us looks like
First meeting — bring the documents
We meet at our office in Paramus, at your home, or at your workplace before or after hours. You bring the most recent comp plan, the vesting schedule, the latest pay stub, and any deferred comp election notices. We spend the hour reading it back to you in plain English and pointing at the items that need a decision in the next ninety days.
Second meeting — the written equity and tax plan
We come back with a written plan that maps the next several years of vests against your tax brackets, recommends a sell-on-vest policy, sizes any concentrated stock the household should be unwinding, and lays out a deferred comp election strategy. The plan is yours to keep whether or not we work together.
A note on fit
When this might not be right for you
Executive planning is not for every household. Some of the people we are not the right fit for:
- Anyone who wants someone to actively trade their company stock around earnings releases. We do not market-time, and we will not pretend to.
- Anyone hoping for a firm that will hold the concentrated position because it is fun to watch. We will tell you the truth about the risk every quarter.
- Anyone whose plan is to fund retirement entirely from one company's stock. We will respectfully push back, in writing, every year.
- Anyone looking for a firm that will sell them a permanent life insurance policy as a tax shelter. We do not sell policies of any kind.
If any of that describes the seat you're in, we'd rather say so on the first call.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between RSUs and stock options?
Restricted stock units are shares the company gives you that vest on a schedule. They are taxed as ordinary income on the day they vest, at the full value of the shares. Stock options give you the right to buy shares at a set price, and the tax depends on whether they are incentive stock options or non-qualified options. The two get planned very differently.
How much of my RSU vest should I sell on vesting day?
For most executives, the right default is to sell enough to cover the actual tax liability on the vest, then sell the rest unless there is a specific reason to hold. The default company withholding is usually too low, so the simple rule of selling everything on vest day is often the cleanest answer. We model your specific numbers before recommending a policy.
What is concentration risk and why does it matter?
Concentration risk is the risk that a single asset — usually your employer's stock — represents too large a share of your net worth. When the same company pays your salary, your bonus, your equity, and a chunk of your retirement plan, a bad year for that company hits everything at once. Trimming the position carefully is one of the most important moves an executive can make.
Should I defer compensation this year?
It depends on what you expect your tax bracket to look like when the deferred amount pays out, and on how much trust you have in the long-term financial health of the employer. Deferred comp is an unsecured promise from the company, not a protected retirement account. We model both the tax case and the credit case before recommending an election.
Can you help me decide whether to exercise my ISOs?
Yes. ISO exercises trigger the alternative minimum tax in many cases, and the right exercise strategy depends on your other income, your holding period plan, and the spread between the strike price and the fair market value. We run the AMT math before any exercise.
What happens to my equity if I leave the company?
Most plans give you ninety days to exercise vested options and forfeit anything unvested. RSUs that have not vested are usually lost. The change-in-control language matters most if you might be acquired. We read the actual plan documents before any departure or negotiation.
Do you charge a percentage of assets or a flat fee?
Both are available depending on the engagement. For executives with concentrated equity and an ongoing planning need, an assets-under-management fee in the 0.6 to 1.0 percent range is common. For a one-time written plan, we charge a flat planning fee. We publish the fee in writing before you agree to anything, and we never accept commissions.