In this video, I explain the 3 steps Snowflake employees can take to prepare for their lockup expiration in mid-December including: Identifying any valid near-term cash needs, deciding if you want to hold on to your SNOW equity for the long-term and developing a selling plan for your remaining SNOW equity.
Full Transcript:
Hi, my name’s Tom Lo with Vested Financial Planning. This video is for Snowflake employees on how you can prepare for your upcoming lockup expiration in Mid-December for 25% of your vested equity.
Table of Contents
Three steps Snowflake employees can take to prepare for their Mid-December lockup expiration
Step 1: Identify any valid near-term cash needs. Figure out what that is. Sell enough to cover that. Good example would be RSUs, If you have RSUs, you’ve got to pay taxes. Sell enough to pay your taxes.
Step 2: Decide if you want to hold on to your SNOW equity for the long-term. For my clients I recommend they hold no more than 20% of their total investable assets in their SNOW equity. Decide what that is. Carve it out.
Step 3: Develop a selling plan for whatever is remaining. There are two ways to do this. One way is to sell immediately. Two is sell over time.
Sell immediately is simple. Just sell everything as soon as you can.
Sell over time on a schedule. For example, you could sell 10% a quarter over the next ten quarters. Some on my clients like that because you won’t pick the single wrong day to sell and you can also spread your taxes over multiple years.
So if you’re a Snowflake employee, congrats on the IPO! This is how you can prepare for your upcoming lockup expiration in mid-December
If you want to talk about your specific situation, schedule a free virtual consultation below.
After 20 years working for companies including eBay, Yahoo!, Intuit, and startups, I made a career change into the financial world as a fee-only financial planner 9 years ago. I earned my CFP®, spent a few years at a boutique fee-only firm in San Jose, worked 2 1/2 years at a leading wealth management firm in San Francisco, and then left to build the firm I wish had existed when I was working as a tech professional.
My mission is to help other Silicon Valley professionals make the most of their employee equity to help them reach their financial goals.
