Marketing Financial Advice to Employees Holding Company Equity or Stock Options They Don't Understand

13 October 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: A huge number of employees holding options, RSUs or performance rights have no real idea what they're sitting on, when tax applies, or what happens if they do nothing — and most financial planning practices market to "investors" rather than to this specific, confused, underserved group. The opportunity is content and positioning built around the actual moments equity comp gets confusing: the grant, the vest, the exit. 💖

Please note: general information, not financial advice — check current official guidance before relying on it.

Somewhere right now, an employee at a growing company is staring at a vesting schedule in their employment portal, understanding roughly none of it, and doing nothing about it because the alternative — asking a financial adviser about "some shares thing from work" — feels like overkill for a problem they can't even properly describe. That hesitation is the entire opening. Equity compensation sits in an awkward gap: too complex to navigate confidently alone, but not obviously "financial advice" in the way a mortgage or a super fund choice feels. Planners who close that gap with clear, specific marketing get first access to a genuinely growing client pool.

Where most practices get this wrong

Most financial planning marketing talks to people who already think of themselves as "investors". Someone holding unvested options doesn't see themselves that way at all; they see themselves as "an employee with some work shares thing I should probably look at eventually". Generic "wealth management" messaging doesn't reach them, because it doesn't speak to their actual confusion: what's the difference between options and RSUs, what happens to unvested equity if they leave, when does tax actually bite, and should this be held, sold, or diversified out of. Practices that win this niche market to the specific moment of confusion, not to a vague wealth-building aspiration.

The usable asset: an equity comp conversation outline for content and first meetings

Structure content (and first-meeting discovery) around four questions every equity-holding employee actually has, in plain language, with no specific figures:

What do I actually have? — options vs RSUs vs performance rights, vested vs unvested, and why the difference matters.
When does this become a tax event? — the general categories of timing (grant, vesting, sale) without quoting specific rates or thresholds.
What happens if I leave my job? — a question almost nobody asks until they're already resigning.
Should all my wealth really be tied up in one company? — the concentration-risk conversation, framed as a genuine question rather than a lecture.

Turn this into a short guide, a LinkedIn content series, or a first-meeting checklist — the goal is for a confused employee to read it and think "finally, someone's explaining the actual thing I'm confused about", not a generic investing explainer with equity comp mentioned in passing.

A financial planning practice attracting tech and biotech employees with option grants: this practice built a short LinkedIn series specifically aimed at employees of a handful of well-known local tech employers, written entirely around the "what do I do with my options" moment rather than general investing content. It became their highest-engagement content by a wide margin, almost entirely from people who'd never have searched for a financial planner otherwise.

A planner working with executives at an ASX-listed company receiving annual RSU grants: rather than a once-off engagement, this planner positioned the relationship around the recurring nature of the problem — a new grant essentially every year, each one needing the same concentration and tax-timing conversation. That reframing turned a single piece of advice into an ongoing annual review relationship.

A practice helping a senior manager at a pre-IPO startup understand what their equity is worth: pre-IPO equity is particularly confusing because there's often no clear market value yet. This practice built content specifically addressing that uncertainty — what questions to ask the company, what "worth" even means before a liquidity event — which positioned them as the sensible first call well before any sale was even possible.

How to build this into ongoing marketing, not a one-off explainer

Equity compensation isn't a single event — grants, vesting and liquidity events recur, often annually, so the marketing relationship can be ongoing rather than one-and-done. Build content around the calendar (vesting dates, EOFY, results season for ASX-listed grants) rather than publishing once and moving on. Consider partnering with workplace financial wellness programs or HR teams at larger local employers, who often want exactly this kind of genuinely useful, non-salesy resource for staff. Keep the language in "let's figure out what you actually have" territory — most people here are more overwhelmed than excited.

💡 Make "what do I actually have" the headline, not "maximise your equity". Confused employees respond to content that validates the confusion first — a headline promising to help them optimise something they don't yet understand tends to get scrolled past.

Mistakes to avoid

Don't assume clients already understand basic terms like vesting, strike price or cliff periods — define them plainly every time.
Don't quote specific tax rates, thresholds or dollar figures in public content — keep it general and point to a proper conversation for specifics.
Don't ignore the concentration-risk conversation — many employees genuinely haven't considered that most of their wealth might be tied to one employer's share price.
Don't treat this as a single transaction — vesting and grant cycles repeat, and your marketing and service model should reflect that.
Don't assume this only applies to tech employees — equity comp shows up across listed companies, pre-IPO businesses and increasingly mid-sized private firms too.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to specialise entirely in equity compensation to market this?

No — it works well as a defined niche within a broader practice, as long as the content and first conversation speak directly to the specific confusion these clients have, rather than folding it into generic investment messaging.

Is this a high-value niche or a lot of small, one-off conversations?

It can be either, depending on positioning. Framed as a single explainer conversation, it risks being one-off and low-value; framed around the recurring nature of grants and vesting, it supports an ongoing advice relationship.

What's the honest limitation here?

Equity compensation interacts with individual tax position, superannuation and overall circumstances in ways specific to each person — general content can open the conversation, but it can't substitute for advice tailored to someone's actual holdings.

Should we target this niche through social content or paid search?

Organic content (particularly LinkedIn, where many equity-holding employees already are) tends to outperform paid search for this niche, since very few people search directly for "financial planner for stock options" — they're more likely to stumble on genuinely useful content first.

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Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

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