New Videos And Articles On Stock Options Diversify Our Educational Offerings For Plan Participants

Although restricted stock and RSUs have become the most commonly used types of equity award, stock options continue to be a prominent form of compensation, as they have been since the first dotcom boom made stock options a household term. The enduring legacy of stock options is even preserved in our website's name (although, of course, we cover all types of equity compensation).

New videos and articles at myStockOptions.com have enhanced and diversified our array of educational content on stock options. As with all of our offerings, this content can be licensed and customized by your company for its stock plan participants.

New Video Series On Stock Options

In alignment with our video series on restricted stock/RSUs and ESPPs, the first two videos in a new series on stock options offer a lively introduction to the basics of option grants.

Employee Stock Options: Core Aspects To Know (4:12). With expert insights from Bruce Brumberg, the editor-in-chief of myStockOptions.com, this video covers the essential aspects of employee stock options that employees must know to make the most of them, including the key concepts of vesting, exercise, the option term, the impact of job termination and other life events, and the wealth-building potential of employee stock options.

Employee Stock Options: NQSO Taxation (2:58). In this video, Bruce covers the tax basics of nonqualified stock options (NQSOs). With animated examples, the video presents how taxes are calculated for NQSOs, what types of taxes apply to NQSOs, how withholding works, and how capital gains taxes apply when employees sell the shares.

On myStockOptions.com, these videos appear in our section on NQSOs. By enticing viewers into the subject of their equity comp, the videos provide a helpful gateway to our more detailed content on the related topics. The video on core concepts also occurs in the section on incentive stock options (ISOs), where a new video on ISO taxation is in the works.

Other New Stock Option Content: Articles, A Podcast, And A Quiz

At myStockOptions.com, we have comprehensive resources on equity compensation for all levels of experience. Among our popular content on fundamental topics are articles on the basics of restricted stock and RSUs (Restricted Stock 101) and employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs 101). To these, we have added a new article on the basics of stock options, Stock Options 101: The Essentials. In clear, non-technical language, it presents the core concepts, facts, and terms that employees must know to make the most of stock options.

Stock options can be very lucrative if handled properly, but there are situations in which people can easily make mistakes with them. In a new exclusive article, CFP Paul Palazzo discusses the most common financial-planning errors that he sees involving stock options—and how to avoid those pitfalls. Common mistakes include exercising early without a good reason, allowing tax treatment to drive decisions, and ignoring the very real risks of having too much wealth concentrated in just one company's stock. This article includes a special podcast interview of the author.

After reading our articles and FAQs on stock options, you will want to test your knowledge. Fortunately, you can do this immediately with the interactive quizzes at myStockOptions.com. We have a new quiz about nonqualified stock options (NQSOs) alongside a general quiz on stock options. In addition, 12 other quizzes cover many other topics in equity compensation. For those pesky questions you get wrong, the answer keys in all of our quizzes provide links to related content for further learning.

License Our Expertise For Your Employees

For companies, education is vital for ensuring that stock compensation motivates and retains highly valued employees and executives. All of our expert yet reader-friendly articles, FAQs, and other content are available for licensing by companies that want to improve their stock plan education and communications for participants. Content licensing is just part of the suite of corporate services that we offer.