Our Process
A financial planning process built for those with company stock
How it Works
The decisions inside each one are specific to you. You always know what phase you are in, what is being worked on, and what comes next.
Phase 01
Know what you actually own. We begin by documenting the entire equity picture, then map the rest of your financial life around it: cash, brokerage accounts, retirement plans, debt, spending, insurance, estate documents, and upcoming goals.
Phase 02
Make the decision while there is still a decision to make. We evaluate the tax consequences surrounding your grants before transactions occur, then coordinate the assumptions and proposed decisions with your CPA.
Phase 03
Stop making the same sell-or-hold decision every quarter. We define how much concentration your financial plan can support and build a process for moving toward that range. We do not build the schedule around a prediction of where the stock will trade next.
Phase 04
Decide what the wealth is for. Once the concentration is moving in the right direction, the question becomes larger: what would need to be true for you to leave your current role, how much spending should the portfolio support, and what should the estate plan look like now?
How We Invest
Outside your concentrated company position, portfolios generally use low-cost, broadly diversified investments. We do not try to replace your employer stock with a new set of individual-stock bets.
Asset location, gain realization, charitable transfers, and withdrawal sequencing can materially change what you keep after tax. We evaluate the portfolio in after-tax terms.
We do not ask the market to tell us when your financial life has become too concentrated. The schedule is driven by your plan.
Service Calendar
The relationship runs on a quarterly rhythm, with extra conversations whenever the calendar requires them. Nothing important waits for an annual review.
Schedule consultationQ1
We refresh the equity map against new grants and vesting, review last year’s return with your CPA, and set estimated payments for the year ahead. You leave the quarter with the year’s decision calendar in writing.
Q2
Vest events and trading windows get modelled before they arrive. We run ISO exercise scenarios against your AMT crossover and confirm or adjust the first diversification tranche of the year.
Q3
A full projection goes to your CPA while the year can still be changed. We review charitable options, harvesting opportunities, and whether the diversification schedule needs to move ahead of Q4.
Q4
We complete the year’s scheduled sales, fund charitable gifts, coordinate open enrollment and deferral elections, and lock the final tax picture before December 31.
Ongoing
Lockup expirations, secondary windows, a liquidity event, an unexpected AMT bill, or a job change do not wait for a quarterly meeting. Those conversations happen when they happen.
What We Believe
A great company can still be a bad concentrated position.
Diversification is a risk-management decision, not a market-timing decision.
Waiting for the perfect time to diversify is often an expensive decision.
Financial independence usually happens gradually.
The tax return should confirm the plan, not reveal it.
Book a discovery call
Thirty minutes on what you own, the decisions in front of you, and which phase you would start in.
Sarah Mitchell, CFP®, CEPA®
Founder, Equipath Wealth Partners
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