Equity Compensation Tax Planning

You Have Equity Compensation. Now You Need a Clear Plan

What We Provide

Comprehensive Coverage

RSUs, ISOs, NSOs, and early-stage equity. Token-based grants and liquidity constraints. We work with the full spectrum of equity compensation structures.

Diversification Planning

Portfolio coordination that balances concentration risk with tax efficiency. We help you build a strategy that fits your overall wealth picture.

Professional Collaboration

Direct coordination with your CPA and attorney. We integrate tax planning, legal requirements, and investment strategy into a single workflow.

Ongoing Monitoring

Grants, prices, and tax rules change over time. We revisit your plan when new awards are granted, share prices move, or personal goals shift.

Understanding the Basics

Equity compensation comes in different forms, each with distinct tax treatment and planning considerations:

RSUs can create ordinary income at vesting.

ISOs may trigger alternative minimum tax and have holding period rules.

NSOs generally create taxable income at exercise.

Early exercise and 83(b) may change timing of income and risk.

Token grants can create income before liquidity, with added volatility and regulatory risk.

Tax outcomes vary based on your income, state residence, holding periods, and future prices. Work with a qualified tax professional before acting.

Our Planning Framework

Tax Timing and Exercise Modeling

We build forward-looking projections that reflect your actual grants and constraints. Models typically include full vesting schedules and grant history, estimated marginal tax brackets and potential AMT exposure, expected income from other assets including crypto where relevant, and sensitivity analysis on prices and timing.

This is planning support, not tax advice. Execution decisions are coordinated with your CPA.

Diversification with Tax Awareness

Concentration increases risk. Rapid sales can increase near-term taxes. Plans are designed to balance both with target concentration ranges with monitoring, phased exercises or sales across tax years where appropriate, and coordination of equity proceeds with your broader portfolio including cash needs and risk tolerance.

No strategy eliminates risk. Diversification does not guarantee profit or protect against loss.

Liquidity and Exercise Planning

Equity events often require cash. We help you evaluate structures and trade-offs including cashless exercise or net-exercise mechanics from your plan, early exercise scenarios and potential 83(b) elections subject to counsel guidance, and financing options offered by third parties with cost, collateral, and default risk review.

Any financing increases risk and cost. Review terms with your advisors before proceeding.

Pre-IPO, Acquisition, or Token Unlock Coordination

Documents, timelines, and windows matter. Ahead of a potential event, we work with your attorney and tax advisor to model estimated after-tax proceeds under different sell windows and tax assumptions, set diversification rules for the first year post-event, and review charitable gifting or donor-advised fund timing subject to your tax counsel.

Event timing and prices are uncertain. Plans are updated as facts change.

Digital Assets and Token Compensation

Digital assets can be highly volatile, can lose value quickly, and may be subject to evolving regulations and tax treatment. Custody, trading venues, forks, and airdrops add operational and tax complexity. Investments in crypto are not suitable for all investors and may result in a total loss. Coordinate actions with your CPA before any sale, transfer, or election.

Who Benefits from This Planning

Public Company Employees

Multi-year RSU grants with vesting schedules and trading windows.

Startup Founders and Employees

Early employees with ISOs or NSOs facing exercise decisions and potential liquidity events.

Token Grant Holders

Those facing income without immediate liquidity in token-based compensation.

What to Expect from the Process

Discovery
Grants, plan documents, cap tables, and current tax posture.
Modeling
Vesting, exercises, price ranges, and estimated tax impact shown net of assumed obligations.
Coordination
Collaboration with your CPA and attorney to align actions with current rules.
Implementation
Trade or exercise workflows, liquidity planning, and portfolio integration.
Review
Quarterly or event-driven updates based on prices, grants, or tax changes.

Important Disclosures

Digital Wealth Partners, LLC is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The firm provides equity compensation tax planning as part of a broader wealth management process. Advice is tailored to each client’s situation and goals.

This page is for informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice.

Investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Equity compensation can increase concentration risk and tax exposure.

Digital assets involve unique risks, including extreme volatility, regulatory change, technology failure, and loss of principal.

Any projections or illustrations are hypothetical planning tools. They do not reflect actual or guaranteed results.

Fees are disclosed in our Form ADV and client agreement. When third-party services are considered, such as lending for option exercises, we disclose material terms and any known conflicts. Clients are free to choose any provider or to decline such services.

If you work with a Digital Wealth Partners professional who is also a registered representative of a broker-dealer, you can research that individual on FINRA BrokerCheck.

Turn Equity Into Long-Term Strategy

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