Women in tech are dealing with serious financial questions – equity compensation, early retirement, career pivots, and that’s barely scratching the surface.
Our team partners with you to help you identify your goals, and reverse engineer a unique strategy that moves you from Point A to Point B.
Tech Executives | Case Study A
A is 40 and a mid-level executive at a publicly-held tech company. Like many of our tech clients, she has moved between companies as opportunities arose. A is a single woman who lives with her partner.
What She Needed:
A wants to retire at age 50 with a similar quality of life to what she has now. She came to us with the following questions:
- How do I support my mother financially, if needed?
- How can I strategize around my stock awards?
- Can I reduce my tax bill?
- How can my wealth support me if I want to retire early?
How We Helped:
For each company A has worked at, we create a strategy around her stock awards, which tend to be restricted stock units (RSUs). We track her grant and vesting schedules and employ a strategy to sell the vested shares and reinvest the proceeds into her portfolio.
We collaborate with a strategic CPA we introduced A to, who advises on setting aside cash for upcoming taxes every time shares vest. In cases where A’s employer has gone public, we have created a strategy for divesting the shares while minimizing tax implications.
With A’s aggressive goal of retiring at 50 in a high-cost-of-living area, we’ve helped her determine how much she needs to save annually over and above her retirement account contributions. We opened trust accounts for additional contributions and created a customized, growth-focused investment strategy. Frequent check-ins ensure she remains on track toward her goal.
We know that Roth conversions after A stops working will lower her taxes over time, increasing her net income. With plans to retire young, many years of tax-free growth will significantly boost her retirement funds.
We’ll create a strategy for converting her pre-tax investments to Roth once she lowers her income at retirement, modeling scenarios to illustrate the potential benefits.
Of course, life isn’t always linear. On the path to early retirement, A became severely ill. We helped her transition from short-term to long-term disability insurance coverage, we helped her navigate employer benefits and Social Security to help her continue her lifestyle as she recovered. Understandably, she chose to lower her portfolio’s risk profile during that period. Once she recovered and regained her risk tolerance, we revisited and repositioned her portfolio for growth.
Where Are We Now?
With ten years until A’s target retirement age, she is on track to meet this goal. We are helping with accountability for savings, reducing taxes to free up more for investing, and an ongoing strategy for stock awards. Once retired, we plan to implement a Roth conversion strategy for lower taxes and higher lifetime income.
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The case study described above is a current client, though for privacy reasons we have omitted the client name. This planning case study should in no way be construed as a guarantee that a current or prospective client will experience similar results or levels of satisfaction if he or she engages with WealthChoice for wealth management services. Every client experience will differ. Future results cannot be guaranteed.
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