Mark Cecchini, CFP®

@markcecchini And have a book 📈📈📈

“71% of new financial advisors leave the profession within their first five years…. 40% of advisors are projected to retire over the next decade.”

"Who do you do your best work for?" We should be asking every professional this question before referring someone to them. I know exactly who I do my best work for. These people. It's one of the most rewarding jobs you could ask for.

@kylefritz23 @TaxAlphaInsider biggest jokers around can't sell based on merit

@markcecchini @TaxAlphaInsider Once caught a MS advisor telling a client who had equity comp administered by MS they HAD to work with them …

If you are about to go through a major IPO or tender offer: >> be very careful when you are offered "free consultations" from the advisors at the financial company where the equity is administered << 1) They don't know you. Odds are they won't go deep enough on the analysis needed to properly advise you in the context of YOUR overall finances. These are incredibly complex topics that spill over into almost every area of your life (tax, estate planning, charitable, investments, cash flow, etc) 2) They are being opportunistic. They are incentivized to have you liquidate the majority of your stock so that they can manage the proceeds for a fee. When Stripe had their big tender in 2023, MS advisors were blanketly telling people to "sell it all" (per internal Stripe Slack channel chatter) Stripe stock has increased by 200% since then. Seek objective, competent advice from someone who will get to know your situation intimately and has the tools to show you all the scenarios and tax implications before making recommendations. 3) They often give out false and/or misleading information. -"We're the only ones that can do ____ strategy." -"We have special relationships/discounts because of our relationship with your company." -"This is all free to you! We're just in it for the love of the game." -"Your staggered lockup % applies to ALL equity including options and unvested shares, not just vested equity" (^^this is the latest nonsense trickling through SPCX group chats that someone got direct from an advisor...like what are we doing here?). One again, be careful out there.

@RyanHaiss Lol aren’t we all Ryan?!

@markcecchini Laughed out loud at "we're just in it for the love of the game"

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New time for advisor office hours tomorrow (Wednesday) 3pm ET Come through

@TaxAlphaInsider Especially for publicly traded companies with cross selling on private alts or pushing folks into ETF/Mutual Fund expense ratios that get kicked back to company and bleed into advisor comp plans, etc

@TaxAlphaInsider YES So many hidden fees and conflicts that will never show up on a statement or quarterly report.

@AtkinsonFinance Absolutely. Never a zero sum game...

@markcecchini So many advisors underestimate this. Being able to call advisors to brainstorm is huge. Plenty of clients out there for everyone who do good work.

“some of your content seems like it’s geared toward other advisors…why?” Uh, yeah. Do you have any idea how powerful it is to have a deep network of smart, thoughtful advisors who will pick up your call? Everyone benefits, especially our end clients.

@RDC_Pacifica Great comparison

@markcecchini I would hope my doctor collaborates with other doctors.

@TaxAlphaInsider Brent gets it!

@markcecchini Also variety keeps things interesting. Approachable, technical, lighthearted, scathing. Nothing wrong with shaking the snow globe!

@M_PierreD Very well said. and thank you !

@markcecchini Man, it really is amazing how much clients respect those boundaries and articulate why you have them. Makes the relationship that much more solid! Couldn’t agree more. For me, it’s no early morning meetings, allows me to walk my kids to school every morning. Love the content!

I live on the East Coast, but serve clients in 16 states 40%+ of them live in the Pacific Time Zone it surprises people when I tell them I very rarely take meetings after 5:00p ET unless something is truly urgent my clients respect that boundary, and the modern workday is flexible enough for them to take shorter, virtual non-work meetings to make it work could I get more West Coast clients / discovery bookings / etc if I opened up my Calendly hours from 8a - 8p ET? absolutely. but I'm not willing to sacrifice family time at all right now.

some might read this as *not working* past 5pm impossible with everything going on most nights back to work 9p - 12/1am after the kids go down

@aw93704 Never! Goes both ways

@alanknit Bizarre behavior

Bizarre to watch someone say that have $50 billion on their platform. They have $50 billion of other people's money using their platform for Q&A while they manage their own financial decisions. Great to have some assistance. But this has nothing at all to do with managing $50 billion AUM. Apples and hand grenades comparison. Imagine every AI platform aggregating the family net worth of everyone that uses Grok ... or OpenAI ... or Anthropic ... acting like those families assets are being managed by their platforms. LOL.

senior FAANG executive just received 1st vest from a massive 4-year comp package with RSUs Their 1st time receiving publicly traded equity awards Completely unfamiliar with the mechanics of RSU vest & release, tax treatment, trading windows, etc.... Here’s what we accomplished in a meeting shortly after vesting: • Broke down the recent vest stub in detail to explain the gross share count, vest-date price, taxes withheld, net shares released (and where they went), and cost basis/new holding period. • Explained that the new cost basis for the net share release is the stock’s fair market value on the vest date, not the stock price when the grant was originally awarded. • Audited actual withholding stub instead of assuming the company got it right. • Explained that Federal withholding was only 22% (until they get to $1 million + supplemental wages YTD), at which point it will kick up to 37%. The first few vests will create a tax shortfall based on expected tax bracket for 2026. • Modeled the tax shortfall created by the expected underwithholding and earmarked part of the eventual sale proceeds for estimated taxes and 4/15 true up. • Modeled the future jump from 22% to 37% federal supplemental withholding once annual supplemental wages exceed $1 million (previewed the fact that future vests will result in materially fewer net shares, even if the gross value is the same). • Transferred the released shares out of the company stock-plan awards account and into regular Schwab brokerage account so we can manage / sell / reallocate proceeds on their behalf. • Kept the net shares separate from the customized direct-indexing brokerage account so we maintain complete control over what is sold, held, or invested. • Established an initial framework to sell 50% of each net vest and retain 50% for upside. • Created an Excel-based framework that's dynamic. Every vest and sell decision (6-figures+ each) will be evaluated based on valuation, concentration, cash needs, taxes, and upcoming lump sum expenses. • Created concentration % guardrails based on the stock’s percentage of liquid net worth and total net worth. • Confirmed the existing direct-indexing portfolio filters out the employer stock, preventing unwanted duplication of the single-name exposure (also prevents wash sale implications between accounts). • Determined that the minimum sale from each vest will safely cover the household’s monthly mortgage payment + surplus for reallocation to different buckets. • Built a liquidity waterfall for mortgage payments, taxes, renovations, tuition, emergency reserves, and other large expenses. • Defined 20% of amount to be sold for safety capital (mortgage reserves, W-2 tax shortfall, etc) within money-market funds, short-term Treasuries, etc that should not be exposed to equity-market risk. • Defined 60% of amount to be sold directly into the diversified investment portfolio (ACWI-benchmark custom stock index). • Defined the remaining 20% of amount to be sold for angel investments, private deals, home improvements, or other one-off opportunities without letting those decisions derail the core plan. • Built the model for a 4-year RSU tracking system showing vested shares, unvested shares, cost basis, market value, gains, taxes, sales, and allocations. • Identified the next planning priorities: CPA coordination, ongoing cash-flow tracking via Monarch, account consolidation, and automated monitoring of the growing equity position. amazing what you can accomplish in 30 minutes.