Equity compensation education
Plain-English guides, tools, and answers on RSUs, stock options (ISOs and NSOs), ESPP, AMT, and QSBS — built for tech employees making real equity decisions.
New to equity? Start with the fundamentals
Types of equity
Equity 101 video course
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Equity Compensation, Explained: A Tech Employee's Field Guide
RSUs, ISOs, NSOs, and ESPP shares are four different instruments, each taxed on its own trigger. Here's what each one means for your bill.
Read the field guideWhy bother learning this yourself?
It’s free
Every guide, tool, and calculator here is free — no account, no gate on the learning itself. The expensive part of equity planning is the mistakes, not the education.
The stakes are real
Equity decisions are deadline-driven. Miss an 83(b) window, over-exercise into AMT, or break a QSBS holding clock and the cost is permanent. Learning early is the cheapest move you’ll make.
The outcome is worth it
People who understand their equity exercise with confidence, keep more after tax, and turn a confusing grant into real, diversified wealth instead of a single-stock gamble.
Serving tech professionals
We built The Equity Architect for one person: the tech professional sitting on equity they don’t fully understand. Our proprietary EQUITY System™, our custom calculators, and every guide exist to turn that equity into wealth you actually keep. It’s written and reviewed by a CFP® who does this every day, not a content team.
Proprietary EQUITY System™
Our 6-step planning framework
Custom-built equity tools
Calculators made for your grants
Built for tech employees
Pre-IPO through liquidity
Mitchell Ludwig, CFP®
Certified Financial Planner®
Mitch builds the equity and tax strategy behind every plan and every tool on this site: AMT, exercise timing, QSBS, and diversification. He works exclusively with tech employees and founders navigating concentrated equity.
