Equity and liquidity
Your company may IPO, merge, sell, or open a tender window.
For employees and executives whose equity, options, RSUs, tender offers, or token compensation are approaching a liquidity event.
What we map first
The first job is to name the moving parts.
Each situation is different, but the planning work starts the same way: organize the facts, clarify what the wealth needs to do, and decide which decisions need specialist coordination before acting.
01
Exercise timing, AMT awareness, RSU withholding, lockups, and 10b5-1 planning considerations.
02
Tender offers, merger proceeds, separation agreements, and concentrated single-company risk.
03
Cash reserves for taxes, spending, debt, reinvestment, and future flexibility.
Before the event
The planning window is usually before the headline.
IPO, merger, tender, lockup, and separation timelines can compress decisions that are easier to evaluate while there is still time to coordinate records, cash, taxes, and specialist review.
01
Inventory grants and schedules: ISOs, NSOs, RSUs, restricted stock, token grants, vesting dates, cliffs, exercise windows, and post-termination deadlines.
02
Map event timing: tender-offer windows, merger close dates, IPO pricing, lockup releases, 10b5-1 plan windows, secondary-sale limits, and token unlocks where relevant.
03
Separate cash needs: exercise cost, withholding, estimated taxes, AMT exposure, reserves, debt, spending, reinvestment, and near-term flexibility.
Dual fluency
Equity and token compensation should be reviewed in one plan.
Some employees have only startup equity. Some have token compensation. Some have both. The planning work should make each asset visible without turning either one into the whole story.
01
Equity-led planning can include exercise strategy, RSU withholding, lockups, tender offers, concentrated single-stock risk, and post-event diversification decisions.
02
Token-aware planning can include vesting, unlocks, wallet access, custody controls, tax timing, and concentration risk inside the same household balance sheet.
03
The output is a written framework for what to hold, diversify, reserve, and revisit, reviewed with tax and legal professionals where those questions apply.
Mechanics to identify early
These terms do not all apply to every person. They are planning topics to identify and coordinate with qualified tax and legal professionals before an event forces the calendar.
Model tradeoffs before an event sets the timeline.
Coordinate with CPAs and attorneys rather than replacing their tax or legal advice.
Create a written plan for what to hold, diversify, reserve, and revisit.
The offerings page describes event-driven founder, equity-comp, and separation planning as a way to start.
Next step
Start with the path that fits your situation.
Use the diagnostic to organize the facts, or read the deeper capability page if you want more context before starting a conversation.
General information only
This page is educational and is not personalized investment, tax, legal, custody, or estate advice. Advisory services are provided only under a signed advisory agreement. Protocol Wealth coordinates with qualified tax and legal professionals where those questions are involved.
Other situations
Crypto wealth
Digital assets can create custody, liquidity, concentration, tax, estate-access, and operational questions that traditional planning often misses.
Small business owner
A business owner plan needs to connect distributions, reserves, exit options, taxes, estate coordination, insurance, and reinvestment.
Retirement income
Income planning connects withdrawal sequencing, cash reserves, taxes, portfolio risk, Social Security timing, required distributions, and legacy goals.
Growth investor
A growth plan should define goals, time horizon, liquidity, tax coordination, concentration limits, and review triggers before asset selection.