How RSUs Are Taxed: Vesting, Withholding and the Shortfall Nobody Mentions
RSUs are wages the day they vest, and the 22% withholding usually falls short. A worked 2026 example, the 1099-B basis error, and why selling at vest costs nothing extra.
ARTICLES
Plain-language guidance on complex topics.
Educational content on financial planning, investing, tax strategy, and estate planning. Written to inform, not to sell.
Equity Compensation
Equity Compensation
Incentive Stock Options and the AMT: How Much You Can Exercise Before It Bites
No regular tax at exercise, but the spread counts for the AMT. Finding your 2026 crossover, the AMT credit, and the December sale that undoes a bad exercise.
Equity Compensation
Net Unrealized Appreciation: The Tax Break for Company Stock in Your 401(k)
Take employer stock out of a 401(k) as shares and most of its growth becomes long-term capital gain. When it beats a rollover, when it loses, and the mistake that forfeits it.
Equity Compensation
Too Much of Your Net Worth in One Stock: How to Reduce It Without a Huge Tax Bill
Why one stock is riskier than it feels, what selling really costs in tax, and the tools for bringing it down: staged sales, gifts, exchange funds, hedges and 10b5-1 plans.
Business Owners
S-Corp vs LLC vs C-Corp: How to Choose a Business Entity in 2026
An LLC is a legal wrapper and an S-corp is a tax election inside it. The real 2026 S-corp saving with the QBI and SE-tax effects included, when a C-corporation wins, and the deadlines for changing your mind. With the S-Corp Election Worksheet.
Business Owners
The QBI Deduction in 2026: Who Gets the 20%, Who Gets Phased Out, and What an S-Corp Changes
Section 199A is now permanent. The 2026 thresholds, the wider phase-in range, what a service business loses above it, the W-2 wage limit, and why an S-corp salary can switch the deduction on or off.
Business Owners
Section 179 vs Bonus Depreciation in 2026: Which to Use, and When Not to Use Either
Bonus is back to 100% permanently and Section 179 is $2,560,000. Where each one wins, the SUV and roof rules, state conformity, and why a full write-off can drop you through three brackets for nothing.
Equity Compensation
How an ESPP Is Taxed: Qualifying and Disqualifying Dispositions, With the Numbers
Two holding-period clocks, four worked sales of the same shares, why the qualifying rule saves less than it sounds, and the 1099-B basis error that taxes the discount twice.
Retirement
The WEP and GPO Repeal: What To Do Now That Your Benefit Has Changed
The six versus twelve month split that decides your back pay, the lump-sum election that can cut the tax on it, the IRMAA surcharge arriving two years late, and why people who never applied still need to file.
Education Planning
Trump Accounts: What They Are and When They Make Sense
Claim the free $1,000, then think hard before adding your own money. What the account actually does, the basis problem nobody mentions, and how it stacks up against a 529 and a custodial Roth.
Equity Compensation
Non-Qualified Stock Options: How They're Taxed
Two taxable moments, one costly reporting error, and a withholding rate that is usually too low. What to check before you exercise, and what to check on your 1099-B afterwards.
Retirement
Self-Employed Retirement Plans: Which One Actually Fits
Four questions get you to the right plan. The first eliminates most of the field, and the second explains why defaulting to a SEP-IRA can cost $25,000 a year in contribution room.
Charitable Giving
Qualified Charitable Distributions: A Better Way to Give After 70½
If you are over 70 and a half and give to charity, writing a check is usually the least efficient route available. Why the 2026 rule changes widened the gap in the QCD's favor.
Retirement
Reasons to Consider a Roth Conversion (and Reasons Not To)
The five situations where converting genuinely pays: the window before RMDs, a low-income year, an RMD problem you can see coming, a market drawdown, and what your heirs will face. Plus the five cases where it costs you money.
Estate Planning
What to Do When You Inherit Money (Before You Do Anything Else)
A calm, practical guide to the first months after an inheritance: what to do first, how different assets are actually taxed, the ten-year rule, and the mistakes people make when grief and a windfall arrive together.
Tax Strategy
Tax-Loss Harvesting: What It Is, How It Works, and Where People Get It Wrong
How the mechanics actually work, the wash sale rule everyone gets wrong, a real-world example with numbers, and the mistakes that turn a smart strategy into a mess.
Estate Planning
Estate Planning: What to Know Before You Meet an Advisor
The documents that do the heavy lifting, what to gather before your first meeting, the decisions worth making early, and the quiet mistakes that undo otherwise good plans.
Investing
The Evolving Role of Private Credit in Corporate Debt Markets
Global private credit AUM is projected to surpass $2 trillion in 2026 and approach $4 trillion by 2030, but 2026 marks the sector's first real credit-cycle test.
Investing
Gold's 2025 Surge: Understanding the Drivers and Outlook for 2026
We are predicting a rise in gold prices up to $5,300/toz due to an increase in private sector investment into the gold market.
Wealth Management
What Private Wealth Management Actually Includes, and Who It Is For
Beyond "the financial advisor rich people use": what the service really covers, what it costs in 2026, who genuinely needs it, who doesn't, and how to tell a good firm from a bad one.
Markets
The Fed's New Reality: Navigating Sticky Inflation and a Slowing Labor Market
The FOMC faces a complicated balancing act: headline inflation has reaccelerated on an energy spike while the labor market shows clear signs of cooling, pointing to a "higher for longer" rate environment.
Markets
The Energy Sector: Data Center Demand Boom Meets Iranian War Supply Shocks
Surging electricity demand from AI-powered data centers is colliding with acute geopolitical supply risks from the escalating war in Iran, reshaping commodity prices, utility revenues, and broader macroeconomic outcomes.
Markets
The US Dollar in 2026: Navigating Cyclical Regimes Amid Persistent Global Dominance
The DXY stood at 97.61 as of February 27, 2026, down 9.27% year-over-year but rebounding modestly on resilient US inflation and labor data.
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