Executive Compensation and Pre-IPO Planning

When your income and wealth are tied to the same company, you need a plan.

Stock options, restricted stock, RSUs, deferred compensation, and private-company shares can create significant wealth. They can also create concentration, tax, and liquidity problems.

The decisions are connected. Exercising an option creates a tax consequence. Holding the shares increases concentration. Selling may create capital gains. Deferring compensation affects when and how you receive your money.

Waiting is also a decision. Options expire. Trading windows close. Elections become irrevocable. An IPO, tender offer, acquisition, or other liquidity event can accelerate everything.

We help clients get ahead of it.

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What We Do

Know what you own: What you have, when it vests or expires, and what it may be worth.
Know your options: When you can exercise or sell, what taxes may be triggered, and when you need liquidity.
Know your risk: How much of your wealth is tied to one company—and how to manage that concentration over time.

Then we build a plan.

Should you exercise now or over several years? Hold the shares or sell them? How much company stock is too much? Should you defer compensation? Can shares be used for charitable giving or transferred to family? Where should the money go after a sale?

These are not decisions that should be made one at a time.

Let's Talk

Richard
Saperstein

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Pre-IPO
Planning

The best time to plan for an IPO is before it happens.

Before a company goes public, there may be important decisions involving option exercises, 83(b) elections, potential QSBS eligibility, tax withholding, estimated payments, charitable giving, trusts, and family transfers. Once the company is public—or a transaction is announced—some of those opportunities may be limited or no longer available.

We help clients prepare for the liquidity event before the liquidity exists. That includes modeling potential values, understanding taxes at different prices, planning for lockup periods and trading restrictions, and deciding in advance how much stock to hold, sell, or diversify.

The objective is to avoid making major financial decisions in the middle of an IPO, acquisition, tender offer, or sudden increase in wealth.

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Turning Compensation Into Wealth

Many executives know their companies extremely well. That does not mean they should have their salary, bonus, benefits, and investment portfolio all tied to the same stock.

A good plan does not mean selling everything. It means understanding the risk, managing the taxes, creating liquidity, and making deliberate decisions.

Depending on the situation, that may include exercising and selling options, selling shares over time, hedging, using an exchange fund, borrowing against eligible shares, making charitable gifts, or transferring wealth to family.

Our job is to show the alternatives, explain the tradeoffs, and help you make the decision.

One Point of Coordination

Executive compensation does not sit in a vacuum. It affects investments, taxes, retirement, estate planning, and cash flow.

Treasury Partners serves as the hub. We coordinate with your accountant and attorney, track the important dates, and help ensure everyone is working from the same plan.

We simplify the process, communicate clearly, and help ensure you understand what you are doing and why.

The goal is not simply to manage the stock. The goal is to turn career success into lasting wealth for you and your family.

Speak with Richard and the Team

Set up a no-cost consultation to learn more about our broad range of wealth management solutions for organizations and individuals.