Career-Created Wealth
RSUs, Retirement Accounts, and Taxable Investments: One Portfolio or Four?
The problem with account-by-account thinking
RSUs arrive through an employer. Retirement assets accumulate through a plan. Taxable investments may reflect years of saving, a liquidity event, or simply the next place excess cash went. Each account can look reasonable on its own. Together, they may create a portfolio with more concentration, more tax sensitivity, or less liquidity than the household intends.
Start with the exposure, not the account label
A first review should identify what the household actually owns across all accounts: broad equity, a single company, cash, bonds, alternatives, and future equity that has not yet vested. The relevant question is not simply whether each account is “allocated.” It is whether the combined exposure makes sense for the household’s work, income, time horizon, and need for flexibility.
Where tax strategy enters
RSU vesting, sales of appreciated shares, charitable giving, Roth-conversion decisions, and asset location can overlap. Those are planning questions, not promises of a tax result. A financial plan can organize the decision points while the client’s CPA or tax counsel confirms the applicable tax treatment.
A more useful workplace-wealth conversation
The most useful output is often not a new account or a more complicated model. It is a clear sequence: what is vested, what is concentrated, what is liquid, what is earmarked, which decisions are time-sensitive, and which professional should be involved next.