Make the most of your executive benefits, deferred compensation and stock options. Get the professional edge you deserve. Gain an advantage with Vantage Financial Partners Limited.

Vantage advises corporate executives and managers, enhancing the value of corporate retirement benefits to simplify retirement transitions.







How should you exercise your options?
By paying cash? By borrowing the money needed from a broker (the so-called "cashless exercise")? By swapping company stock you already own?

You could pay cash. The hitch comes if you don't have enough cash to buy option shares and pay the subsequent tax.

Using an incentive stock option (ISO), you might be able to swap company stock for option stock. As long as you hold the swapped ISO shares for a required 1- or 2-year period, the exchange isn’t considered a sale and no tax is triggered. (This is also a useful way to restrict your concentration in company stock.)

In a cashless exercise, you borrow money to exercise your option, with the intent of selling at least enough shares to cover brokerage costs, fees and taxes. Above those costs, the profits from the sale come to you in cash or stock.

Many employees cash out options within a few months of eligibility. This move can forfeit much of the potential of your options.

Sometimes it does make sense to exercise early so you can take most of your earnings in stock appreciation, taxed at lower capital gains rates - presuming the price of the stock is likely to rise in the future.
  • Maybe your company (or your industry) is on a long, downhill slide.
  • Maybe exercising just a portion of your options would keep you out of that higher tax bracket.
  • Maybe you have way too much of your portfolio assets invested in employer stock.


It may be more profitable to exercise later, after you retire (if your company’s vesting schedule permits). The important thing is to decide what to do with your options before the last minute - so you can understand what you're buying and evaluate the potential gains and tax liability ahead.

How much are your options really worth?
We’ll tell you.
You've probably been given different sets of options over several years, each with separate exercise prices, vesting schedules and restrictions. If your company's annual report, 10-K or 10-Q lacks a table or analysis detailing the number of exercisable and unexercisable options and the value of "in-the-money" options, we use the same "Black Scholes" model that professional traders use on publicly traded stock options to calculate their worth.

Maybe the annual report is months old; maybe you've left the company; maybe the stock price has risen or fallen dramatically. We take all these variables into account as we calculate the true value of exercisable and unexercisable options - a complex art that will give you a window into the gains you may possibly receive.

Deferred Compensation
If you have a "top hat" or supplemental retirement plan, your deferral - whether in cash, stock options, or grants of stock - may or may not give you an adequate lump-sum at retirement.

It seems that the rules and regulations regarding Deferred Compensation Plans change every year. We look at the most current regulations and the potential of your Deferred Comp plan in light of your lifestyle and other sources of income to determine just how much salary you need to defer for your retirement ventures. We also inform you of the tax consequences regarding the deferred amount, and the need for "rabbi trusts" and "secular trusts."

Executive Benefits
Beyond base pay, you may receive performance shares, restricted stock awards and stock options, a supplemental retirement plan or a complementary executive insurance plan to guarantee your benefits against bankruptcy. Vantage can help you strategize to take advantage of these benefits at the right time, and to manage tax consequences.

Now, what if the right offer comes along and tempts you to jettison your company’s "golden parachute" for another executive position? Beyond change of control protection, what do you have to demand financially to sustain your vision of retirement? Vantage can help you calculate the cost of change, and the risk and financial promise behind the choice.

E-mail us to request more information.




9 North Vail Avenue, Arlington Heights, IL 60005
PHONE: 847-590-9191   FAX: 847-590-9009   E-MAIL info@vantagefinancial.com
Privacy Policy
Securities offered through Linsco/Private Ledger (LPL), a registered investment advisor.
Member NASD/SIPC.