Stock Option Financial Advisor for Equity Compensation & Pre-IPO Planning
Stock Option and RSU Financial Advisor for Employees, Executives, and Founders
Darrow Wealth Management specializes in stock option advisory and planning for individuals at public and private companies who are navigating equity compensation. If you’re an employee (or former employee) at a pre-IPO company preparing for an IPO, acquisition, merger, or tender offer, it’s important to work with a financial advisor who specializes in stock options, RSUs, and executive stock compensation.
If your company has announced an IPO, acquisition, SPAC, or tender offer, some of the most important financial decisions of your life are happening right now — most of them are time-sensitive and many are irreversible. This is exactly what we do.
From pre-liquidity event financial planning to wealth management for your life after, we’re here to help you through the entire sudden wealth lifecycle.
A stock option advisor understands the planning opportunities, tax considerations, and risk management decisions that often need to happen before liquidity.
Let's Talk About Your Equity.
Specialists in Managing Stock Options or RSUs and Planning After an IPO or Liquidity Event
For founders, early employees, and executives, stock options can create a life-changing liquidity event and the most important planning opportunities often happen before you make irreversible decisions. A strong plan helps you weigh tradeoffs across taxes, concentration risk, timing, and long-term goals.
Our team of stock option financial advisors can help current and former employees — including shareholders of public or pre-IPO companies — build a strategy around five key components:
Pre-IPO and Sudden Wealth Event Planning
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Financial planner pre-IPO
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Manage RSUs and stock options before an IPO
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Complex equity planning, tax optimization, portfolio management for high-net-worth liquidity events
- Long-term advisory relationship: from diversifying concentrated equity, to liquidity projections and building generational wealth
Tax Planning and Strategy
Alternative minimum tax planning and AMT credit utilization
Qualified small business stock (QSBS) planning and trust strategies
Managing RSUs and tax planning around RSU vesting
- Tax management before and after a tender offer sale, cash/stock acquisition, or going public
- Tax-loss harvesting, direct indexing and other tax-aware strategies
Post-IPO Sales Strategy
Custom sales and trading strategies to manage post-IPO lockup liquidity and other stock sale windfalls
Strategies to manage concentrated single-stock holdings and diversify employer equity
Multi-year diversification plan through our ongoing advisory relationship
Multi-factor approach: cash needs, grant type, cost basis lots, net proceeds, AMT credit considerations
Planning Exercises
- Tax and liquidity planning for timing pre-IPO and post-IPO exercises
Early exercise strategies with an 83(b) election
- Avoiding the ISO AMT trap with and timing exercises with sales
- ISO/NSO exercise methods: net exercise, cashless, monetary
Job Changes or Early Retirement
- Treatment of vested and unvested stock options and RSUs if you quit or retire
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What an acquisition or buyout means for your equity
- Negotiation strategies for stock options and equity compensation
Planning Beyond an IPO Windfall or Liquidity Event
Ongoing wealth strategy and portfolio management
Retirement and cash flow projections, major purchase (home) feasibility study, scenario analysis
Coordination with your CPA/tax advisor and estate planning attorney
Let's Talk About Your Equity.
Financial Advisor for ISOs, NSOs, RSUs, and Equity Compensation
Equity compensation can be one of the most valuable and complex parts of your financial life. Effective planning depends on understanding not just what you’ve been granted, but also how upcoming events, tax rules, and personal goals intersect.
Supporting individuals navigating stock option and equity compensation decisions, including:
- Pre-IPO, post-IPO, and acquisition financial planning decisions
- Founders and executives with concentrated company stock exposure
- Exercise strategies for ISOs or NQSOs
- Tech employees evaluating tender offers, secondary sales, or post-IPO sales
- What happens to equity when you leave the company
Nationally Recognized Specialist in Stock Compensation
Kristin McKenna, CFP®, President of Darrow Wealth Management, is a nationally recognized specialist in employee stock options and equity compensation planning. Our work and perspectives have been featured by a range of media outlets.
Publications above reflect media organizations that have quoted and/or published articles authored by Kristin McKenna and should not be misconstrued as a current or past endorsement of Kristin McKenna, Darrow Wealth Management, or any of its advisors. Please refer to the media page for more information and links to published works.
We work with clients who receive different types of equity compensation, including:
- Incentive stock options (ISOs)
- Nonqualified stock options (NQSOs)
- Restricted stock awards (RSAs)
- Restricted stock units (RSUs)
- Founders shares
- Profits interests
- Employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs)
Many clients have a mix of common shares, exercisable options, and equity subject to vesting. Through an ongoing advisory relationship, we help clients plan across the full equity compensation lifecycle from early-stage grants and exercise decisions to diversification planning after a liquidity event.
Tax Planning for ISOs, Exercises, AMT, and RSUs is also a key part of our Wealth Management services for clients with equity compensation. We believe in a team approach, so our work is designed to complement—not replace—the services of a CPA or tax preparer. We will collaborate with your tax professional for a final review of the strategies we develop together.
Financial Planner for Company Stock in an IPO
Ongoing Wealth Management (As Part of the Advisory Relationship)
Darrow Wealth Management is a fee-only financial advisory firm and full-time fiduciary. All of our clients need ongoing support, and the Darrow Private Wealth Management Program provides investment management and comprehensive financial planning designed to help you implement a long-term strategy after a liquidity event.
- Fiduciary Advisor
- Fee-Only Wealth Manager
- CFP® professionals
- Independent
Work With a Financial Advisor Who Specializes in Stock Options and Equity Compensation
Frequently Asked Questions About Stock Option Wealth Advisory
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Do I need a financial advisor who specializes in equity compensation?
Finding an equity compensation specialist is very important. Most financial advisors don’t specialize in executive stock compensation, so it’s important to find an advisor with deep experience if you’re planning for a major liquidity event such as an IPO, acquisition, or tender offer. For example, we’ve found shares eligible for tax-free QSBS sales that other advisors missed, preventing major tax-saving opportunities from slipping through the cracks.
Darrow Wealth Management specializes in helping executives and employees (typically tech employees) manage stock options, RSUs, and other forms of stock compensation.
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Should I speak with a financial advisor before a company goes public or after a liquidity event?
Having professional equity management before an IPO or acquisition is advisable. There are financial planning considerations and key decisions to make that usually have small windows to take action. That said, there’s still plenty of planning to be done after a liquidity event. Schedule a call with an advisor to discuss your post-IPO shares.
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Do you help tech employees manage stock options and RSUs?
Many clients fit into the following categories, either now or when they received their stock:
- Software engineer/developer
- Tech employee
- Product manager
- Biotech or tech founder
- C-Suite
And generally, a liquidity event prompted them to seek a fiduciary financial advisor:
- Pre-IPO or post-IPO planning (or SPAC/direct listing)
- Tender offer
- Company acquisition or merger
- Leaving the company
- Expiring lockup period
- Major change in equity value sparking a need for a formal strategy and professional support
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Do I need a professional to help me manage my stock options and diversify?
A long-term partnership with a financial and tax advisor can help you manage your equity strategy, optimize for taxes, diversify proceeds with the tools and strategies available to institutional asset managers, and map post-liquidity possibilities through planning and projections.
Support from a wealth manager can also reduce the risk of making a costly, irreversible mistake with your equity, like triggering a large AMT bill without liquidity or passing on a tender offer due to concentration bias, missing a major opportunity to diversify.
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Do you offer pre-IPO financial planning for employees and executives with ISOs, NSOs, and RSUs?
As a pre-IPO financial planner, we help clients with stock options and RSUs get ready for a liquidity event. Many employees receive multiple types of equity compensation over time. Planning typically considers how each grant works, how vesting schedules align, and how potential tax outcomes may differ across equity types.
We advise clients who have ISOs, NSOs, performance shares, restricted stock units, restricted stock awards, common stock, founders shares, and other forms of stock-based pay.
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Can you help diversify out of concentrated company stock after an IPO?
It's important to develop a plan to sell company stock in a tax-efficient way when the lockup ends. Balancing concentrated stock exposure with tax implications is key. Through our ongoing investment management relationship, we’ll discuss specialized diversification strategies and help you build a long-term portfolio to support your financial goals. In diversifying concentrated positions, we can leverage multiple strategies, from trading options (calls, puts, etc.) to portfolio screens, and other solutions.
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How are fee-only wealth managers compensated? Are there investment minimums?
Most fee-only advisors charge a percentage of the assets under management (no commissions or product sales). The name is a bit counterintuitive, but the majority of fee-only firms don't work on an hourly or project basis.
At Darrow, stock option advisory services are only offered to wealth management clients as part of an ongoing long-term relationship, which includes asset management and comprehensive financial planning.
Relationship minimums are common for fee-only fiduciaries. Our wealth management program has a $2M investment minimum. While proceeds from an upcoming liquidity event can count toward this threshold, clients whose primary asset is pre-IPO equity typically have vested shares or a stock portfolio worth $5M or more (assuming no other significant investable assets).
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Can you just help me with a strategy for 12-24 months around the IPO?
Our model is built around ongoing advisory relationships, not event-based advice. We're selective about who we take on because these situations require considerable investment on our end – and because the complexity doesn't actually go away post-diversification, it just changes form and urgency.
The nature of the advice and support we provide our wealth management clients typically evolves over the long-term partnership, as their financial situation, life stage, tax situation, risk profile, income needs, and family situation will inevitably change.
Stock Option Advisory Insights
How Do Employee Stock Options Work? Company Stock Compensation Guide
A company’s equity compensation plan can include two types of stock options: incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs). There are other forms of stock compensation, such as restricted stock units, but those aren’t stock options. The basic concept of how stock options work is simple: a grant
SpaceX IPO: Employee Lockup Release Dates
SpaceX employee lockup rules and key dates for liquidity.
What Happens to Stock Options in a SPAC Merger?
Although the most common way for a company to go public is through the traditional initial public offering (IPO) process, it’s not the only method. Although SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) were first created in 1993, in the last few years they became a very popular way for a company
How Stock Options Are Taxed: ISO vs NSO
Tax Implications Of Exercising And Selling Stock Options Key Summary: There are two types of stock options: incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs). Exercising ISOs is taxable for the alternative minimum tax calculation, not the regular tax system. Exercising NSOs triggers immediate income tax withholding. If incentive