Brant Cavagnaro, CFA®, CFP®

It’s easy for the long-term investor to look at the S&P 500’s performance in recent years and consider abandoning other asset classes such as US small cap, international and emerging market stocks. After all, the S&P 500 contains brand-name companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple.

For executives at public companies and key employees of early-stage startups, it’s common for companies to offer equity compensation in place of a higher salary. In this blog post, I’ll explain what equity compensation is and discuss the differences between each form of equity compensation.

Are you fearful about your finances during this time? COVID-19 and other current events have created financial uncertainty. While you might focus mainly on your investment portfolio, don’t forget about estate planning 101 tools like trusts, wills, power of attorneys (POAs), and advance directives.