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    Specialty Services

    Financial Planning for Tech Employees

    Working in tech often means a compensation package that looks exceptional on paper and creates real complexity in practice. RSUs, ISOs, ESPPs, and a high base salary interact in ways that most financial advisors—and most tech employees—aren't fully equipped to navigate. We built WealthBound specifically for this.

    The challenge

    Why financial planning for tech employees is different

    Generic financial advice isn't designed for how tech professionals actually earn, save, and accumulate wealth.

    Your compensation is complex by design

    A typical tech compensation package includes base salary, performance bonus, RSU vesting, ESPP participation, and potentially ISOs from earlier in your career. Each component has different tax treatment. Most advisors address one piece at a time—and the gaps between those pieces is where the money gets lost.

    Equity decisions have a short window

    RSUs vest quarterly. Options have exercise windows. IPO lock-ups expire on a schedule. The decisions that determine whether you capture or give back a significant portion of your equity value often have to be made weeks or months in advance—not in reaction to a vesting event.

    Your income creates cascading effects

    High W-2 income from tech salaries can trigger AMT, phase out valuable deductions, and interact with equity compensation in ways that aren't obvious until you see the full picture modeled together. A vesting event in the wrong quarter can cost tens of thousands in avoidable taxes.

    IPOs change everything—and require advance planning

    A pre-IPO to post-IPO transition is one of the highest-stakes financial events in a tech employee's career. Lock-up expiration, blackout windows, Section 16 requirements for insiders, and concentrated position management all require a coordinated plan built well in advance of the event.

    How we approach financial planning for tech employees

    We start with a complete picture

    Before we make any recommendations, we map your full compensation structure: base, bonus, RSU vesting schedule, ESPP participation, any legacy options, and your brokerage and retirement accounts. We look at what you're earning, what you're keeping, and where the gaps are between the two.

    We model decisions in advance

    For each upcoming vesting event, ESPP purchase window, or option exercise decision, we build a tax model. You know what you're walking into before you make the decision—not after you've filed. For clients approaching an IPO, we begin this process 12–18 months in advance, not 30 days before the lock-up expires.

    We coordinate across your advisors

    Our clients often have a CPA handling their taxes and a brokerage account they manage themselves. We connect those dots—preparing analysis that your CPA can implement and providing guidance that aligns your investment decisions with your tax position. You shouldn't be the one translating between your advisors.

    We plan for both the upside and the downside

    Not every pre-IPO company goes public on schedule. Not every option grant ends up in-the-money. We build financial plans that account for multiple scenarios—so your household finances aren't entirely dependent on a single liquidity event going according to plan.

    Outcomes

    What our tech employee clients walk away with

    • Full equity inventory mapped to a tax-aware vesting and liquidation calendar
    • ISO exercise strategy with AMT modeling for each potential scenario
    • ESPP participation and holding period guidance
    • Pre-IPO and lock-up expiration planning coordinated with your income
    • Concentrated equity position assessment and diversification roadmap
    • Coordinated tax strategy that accounts for W-2 income, bonus, and equity together
    • Clear cash flow plan that accounts for vesting income, withholding gaps, and taxes due

    Who we work with

    We work with software engineers, product managers, engineering managers, and other tech professionals at public and pre-public companies who earn $200,000 or more in total compensation and have meaningful equity as part of their package.

    We're particularly well-suited for tech employees who:

    • •Are approaching an IPO or have recently gone through one
    • •Have equity grants from multiple employers and aren't sure how to think about them together
    • •Have had a surprise tax bill related to equity vesting or exercise
    • •Are making (or avoiding) a decision about when to exercise ISOs
    • •Feel financially "behind" despite earning above-market compensation

    We're based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and work with tech employees virtually throughout the country—including major tech hubs like the Bay Area, Seattle, Austin, and New York.

    Your equity is a planning event, not a windfall

    Schedule a 20-minute intro call. We'll tell you exactly how we'd approach your specific compensation structure.

    Schedule Your Intro Call

    Fee-only fiduciary. Based in Scottsdale, AZ. Serving clients virtually nationwide.