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Here’s the latest news, tips & information for financial advisors that have clients or prospects that receive equity compensation.
Advisor Programs Improve Stock Plan Perceptions: This article summarizes recent equity compensation participant surveys & research and describes how financial advisor guidance programs can significantly decrease stock plan perception and education gaps. Advisor based assistance programs enable companies to maximize their investments in equity compensation by assisting plan participants to fully understand, appreciate and get the most out of their company stock and option grants. This article also describes an “opt-in” program that advisory firms can use for engaging executives, establishing relationships and providing structured 1-on-1 assistance.
Tax Return Guidance for Reporting Stock Sales: For clients that receive stock compensation, every tax-return-filing season raises worries about errors that can lead to the overpayment of tax, IRS penalties, or even an IRS audit. This tax-return season presents more than the usual potential for confusion and expensive mistakes in IRS filings. The big changes for this year include modifications both in the major IRS form used to report stock sales and in the rules for reporting the cost basis of stock compensation. In this article, Bruce Brumberg, Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder of myStockOptions.com provides insights and guidance.
Don’t Confuse Financial Planning with Equity Compensation Diversification Analysis: If you are using financial planning software to analyze and manage your client’s company stock and option holdings you may not be maximizing the value of their equity compensation and you are probably missing out on timely diversification and reinvestment opportunities. This article summarized the differences between financial planning and equity compensation analysis.
StockOpter Users Share Their Wisdom with ESO Recipients:
- Being Smart with Your Stock Options by David Gardner, CFP
- Managing Risk for Your Company Stock Options by John Lau, CPA, CFP
- Encouraging Clients to Diversify Their Options with Lynn Chen-Zhang, CFP, CPA
StockOpter Product News:
- SO.com Administrators can now control how grants are sorted in report tables and the dashboards for their company account. The “Sort Grant ID” box on the “My Company” page overrides the program default of sorting by grant or expiration date.
- The 2015 tax year release of StockOpter Pro is scheduled to be available in early April. Enhancements include new “Price Indices” and a “Diversification” table that compares the value of the company stock and options to the value of the alternative investment account.
- Planned StockOpter.com enhancements for this year include redesigned report templates and analytics for restricted and owned share diversification.