A senior engineer whose base pay is the smaller part of total compensation. Equity vests every quarter, lands as a lump, and sits in a brokerage cash balance for months because nobody decided what it was for.
Vesting without a plan.
Base salary was $210,000; annual vesting added roughly $160,000 more in four uneven lumps. Each grant landed as employer stock and was left where it fell, so the client's net worth had become 68% one company.
Between grants, cash accumulated in a brokerage sweep account earning almost nothing. There was no Roth, no high-yield account, and no rule for what happened when a grant vested.
Stock treated as income.
The session established one rule and automated it: every vest is treated like a paycheck. A standing sell-and-transfer order moves a fixed share of each grant to a diversified index position and a fixed share to high-yield savings, leaving a capped single-stock holding rather than an accidental one.
Salary got the standard percentage split. The Roth IRA was opened and set to fund itself in the first weeks of each year from the January vest.
The new allocation.
Set once, in the session. It has run on every paycheck since without a login.
Every vest is treated like a paycheck. Every paycheck is treated the same way.
- Checking55%$9,625
- Brokerage (diversified)25%$4,375
- High-Yield Savings10%$1,750
- Roth IRA10%$1,750
The split above applies to salary. Each equity vest follows its own standing rule, set in the same session.
The client scenario and figures on this page are an illustrative composite based on typical engagements. They do not represent a single real individual, and no outcome is a promise of yours.