Your Employee Stock Options [Hardcover]

Alan B. Ungar (Author), Mark T. Sakanashi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2001

Explore Your Options

Stock options are one of the fastest-growing trends in employee compensation and are no longer reserved for just high-level executives. Options have become a common part of compensation for millions of Americans in new as well as old economy companies.

But many option holders don't understand what they have, are not aware of option risks, and are at a loss to know when or whether to exercise the options. Exercising too soon could mean missing out on potential profit. Hang on too long and you just might lose everything.

Your Employee Stock Options is the definitive guide to understanding and getting the most out of this increasingly popular form of compensation. Authors Alan B. Ungar and Mark T. Sakanashi, both Certified Financial Planners, share their methods for determining risk and acting accordingly. Stock options, they say, can be used both to secure financial well-being and to achieve long-term goals. Their guidance shows how you ran use options to:

build a foundation for financial freedom using the authors' Critical Capital Strategy, which shows you how to immediately establish your own financial security with a minimum of risk

decide when to exercise your options, estimating the most advantageous time to sell

reduce the tax bite and keep more of what you make

The book is divided into two easy-to-understand sections. The first covers fundamental concepts that all option holders need to know: option types, tax ramifications, vesting, and more. The second part introduces a simple five-step procedure covering the decision-making process, helping you build a long-term plan while meeting short-term needs.The site offers analytical and planning tools and downloads of the do-it-yourself worksheets included in the book, all free of charge.

You need this book if you:

have been given options and aren't sure what to do with them

are changing jobs, and have options from your old employer and want to negotiate options with your new employer

are self-employed and are offered options in lieu of payment from a client

are a financial planner or investment advisor

are a corporate manager who must make decisions or answer employees' questions about options

More than 12 million employees receive stock options. If you're one of them, you can't afford to do without this comprehensive and interactive guide.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The authors, certified financial planners, offer comprehensible advice on all aspects of stock options, including when to exercise tax considerations, divorce transactions, job negotiations and more. Especially helpful are the sections on charitable giving and estate taxes--significant topics that are not often addressed. The book will be of particular interest to readers whose options have dramatically declined in value since the dot-com shakeout. However, the frequent references to the authors' business make the book read like an expanded sales pitch rather than an authoritative tome.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A significant contribution to the ease of understanding stock options ... Read it, use it, and profit from it." -- Ben Coombs, CLU, CFP, Petra Financial Advisors, Inc.

"I'm going to recommend this book to all of our employees." -- Althea Mitchell, Manager Equity Benefit Plans, Countrywide Credit Industries

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; First Edition edition (July 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006662097X
• ISBN-13: 978-0066620978
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,577,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Helpfull, easy to understand, July 3, 2001

By 

Harold Hersh, CPA (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Employee Stock Options (Hardcover)

This is a book that will really help people, including my clients, decide what to do with their stock options. It is easy to read with excellent examples and very valuable tools. It does an excellent job explaing the intricacies of employee stock options without overwhelming the reader with technical jargon and tax laws. Being able to use the web site is amajor advantage.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful Book for People with Stock Options, October 19, 2001

By 

George B (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Employee Stock Options (Hardcover)

Your Employee Stock Options is a useful book for someone with options. It provides an interesting approach to making decisions on when to exercise options and when to sell. As an engineer that received pre-IPO options, the concept of leverage wasn't relevant to my case. When your exercise price is less than a dollar a share, the decision of when to exercise is almost purely a tax issue. Leverage may be more important to others. The concept of securing your critical capital is excellent. Just going through the planning process of deciding what you want with your life makes this book worthwhile. Considering cost vs. benefit, I recommend someone buy this book and use it to help define what end result they want. I also recommend that the reader search for alternate opinions and do a dry run through the tax calculations before they exercise options. Don't blindly put you financial future in the hands of financial professionals. (If they really know what they're doing, wouldn't they be too busy making money for themselves?) Decide what YOU want and run the numbers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ken Downer, CPA President of IHS Financial Planning, Inc., May 3, 2003

By 

Kenneth F Downer (Savage, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Employee Stock Options (Hardcover)

I am re-reading "Your Employee Stock Options" by Alan Ungar and Mark Sakanashi to sharpen my stock option knowledge.

This book is not only a must-read for anyone who owns options, but it is invaluable to me in my financial planning practice. The concept of "Critical Capital" is the most common sense way to look at the timing of cashing in options that I have seen. My clients benefit by having a rational way to look at how options can best be used to reach their financial goals.

Throw in the tools available on the website, and you have a complete resource for guiding yourself or your clients through the complicated maze of stock options. I highly recommend this valuable book.