Case Studies
Discover our client stories.
We work with tech professionals whose wealth is built on equity.
That brings a specific set of challenges, and the questions tend to repeat. Too much of your net worth in one company. Options you don't fully understand. And eventually, the shift from building wealth to living on it. Here is the pattern we see most, followed by three situations we work through often.
The Common Case We Work With
A close friend started at Intuit the same time I did. As the stock climbed, his RSU refresh grants kept growing, and the tax bill from selling slowly became the reason not to sell. Then the stock dropped more than 50%.
The pattern we see most often isn't that people own too much company stock. It's that every new refresh grant resets the mental clock. Diversify after the next vest, then the next one, then the next promotion. The cycle never ends.
One question tends to change it: if your next vest arrived as a cash bonus instead of shares, would you put all of it back into your employer? That is effectively the decision you make by holding it. The cases below show how we help people work through exactly that.
— Stephen Nguyen, Private Wealth Advisor
"We know we're concentrated. We just don't know what to do about it."
A couple in their late 40s came to us with exactly that. One worked at NVIDIA, the other at Google.
They hadn't become concentrated by chasing returns. They stayed at great companies, performed well, and were rewarded with years of RSUs. On paper they had done everything right. But nearly 85% of their investable assets sat in two stocks, and the problem was accelerating. Even selling every newly vested share, future grants meant their concentration would likely keep growing.
So the question shifted. Instead of "Should we sell?" they started asking, "How do we unwind this thoughtfully?"
We began by modeling where they stood today and where they were headed over the next three years if nothing changed. Once they could see the trajectory, the conversation moved from reacting to planning. From there, we worked through four decisions.
- Define what "enough" looked like. Before choosing which shares to sell, we agreed on a target. How concentrated were they comfortable being? How much of their future lifestyle truly depended on these two companies continuing to climb? A clear destination made every later decision easier.
- Build a tax-aware diversification roadmap. We reviewed every tax lot, prioritized the shares that made the most sense to sell or exchange, and mapped a multi-year plan. The pace reflected their conviction in each company, the tax impact, and the goals they wanted to fund over the next decade.
- Use the tools available while still employed. Rather than relying on sales alone, we added strategies that work alongside ongoing RSU vesting. That included direct indexing to harvest losses that can offset future gains, and evaluating exchange funds for part of their position to diversify without immediately recognizing capital gains.
- Expand the options as life changes. When one spouse later left Google, new tools came into view. We revisited the plan and weighed prepaid variable forward contracts, covered call strategies, and long-short approaches to see which, if any, fit their new circumstances.
Today they don't have a single solution. They have a framework that adapts as their careers and goals change. Building wealth is often the easy part. Knowing how to move from building it to protecting it is where planning makes the difference.
"Everyone talks about the tax bill just to exercise. So I've done nothing."
An engineer who joined Stripe early came to us stuck in exactly that spot. He'd never held incentive stock options before and didn't know how they worked.
He kept hearing colleagues talk about the taxes owed just to exercise. The fear of a large, surprise bill led him to do nothing at all.
He told us he was comfortable putting some of his savings into the company he worked for. He just didn't know how much he could exercise without triggering a tax problem. Working alongside his CPA, we modeled the amount he could exercise without incurring additional tax. It wasn't his full position, but it landed right around the amount he was already comfortable investing in a private company.
He left with two things he didn't have before: a clear understanding of how his options actually work, and the confidence to act without bracing for a tax bill he couldn't predict.
"We spent our careers learning how to save. No one taught us how to spend it."
A couple in their forties came to us with that exact feeling. They were confident they'd saved enough to retire, but what they wanted was a plan for the assets they'd built. Three things were on their mind: how to draw income efficiently once the paychecks stopped, how to pass wealth to their children, and how to support two nonprofits they cared about.
We started with their monthly income need, then built a withdrawal plan across their IRAs, Social Security, and investment portfolio to meet it.
For their children, they were specific. They wanted to pay for each child's wedding, cover a down payment on a first home for each, and set aside a year of college tuition for future grandchildren. We created separate accounts earmarked for each goal and began funding them from their existing investments. Because the total stayed under the lifetime gift exemption, no advanced estate strategies were required. Finally, we set up a donor-advised fund to structure their charitable giving.
They didn't just have savings. They had a plan for what those savings were meant to do.
These examples are illustrative and provided for educational purposes only. They are not a guarantee of future results, and individual circumstances vary. Nothing here is tax or legal advice; please consult a qualified professional regarding your situation.
