I can't think of a clever subject

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

(I posted my question in the comments of the on-line story on the company home page and an accountant reached out to me, and explained that even though the FAQ referred to the stocks as RSRs in the "After Vesting" section, once they vest, they will no longer be RSRs, and will just be regular stocks, and sellable, and therefore have real value)  (ok, he was 99% sure)

So not only do I not have a clever title, I now don't even have a subject to discuss.  Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[maarsen]

This arrangement is similar to how pension plans are set up by some companies here in Canada. If you leave gefore retirement, you get nothing. Not being in a pension plan or some other type of nontaxable account makes it look like an attempt to create  golden handcuffs using lead or tin.

[Iskaral Pust]

Is this a question?

I've not heard "RSR" but RSUs are extremely common.  Restricted Stock Units are granted to employees with deferred vesting, often over three or five years, usually as a non-cash portion of your bonus.  Basically your employer is telling you today that they are assigning you today an allocation of company stock worth $x.  They open a brokerage account for you, e.g. at Schwab, Fidelity, UBS or similar, and your RSUs are deposited there and vary in value with the stock price.  But you cannot sell them and access the value until they vest.  Your brokerage account will tell you which units vest when.  As you accumulate RSUs over several years, you eventually reach a stable situation where you have a few slices of different prior grants vesting in each year.  You don't have to sell when they vest; you can just keep the unrestricted stock in your brokerage account.  After it vests, it's just regular shares like any other investor holds.  It's your decision at that point whether to continue to hold or else sell & spend or sell & diversify.  (I sell & diversify but you need to decide for yourself).  It's a way of your employer giving you a deferred bonus, which you lose if you leave the company, but at least that bonus continues to appreciate in value (usually, but not guaranteed) while you wait for it to vest.

RSUs are not usually* tax-privileged like a 401k plan or a pension plan.  So when you go to sell your RSUs, you owe income tax on the total proceeds, not just the gains during the vesting period -- it's treated like a part of your bonus payout.  Usually your brokerage account will withhold a portion of the sale to meet your tax obligation, which then gets included (both the income and the withholding) on your W2 from your employer.  But you should ask HR about that.  So mentally deduct your tax rate from your RSU balance to avoid disappointment later.

*ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) are usually tax-privileged, but usually aren't referred to as RSUs.

[GAROVORKIN]

22 hours ago, Lany Freelove Cassandra said:

(I posted my question in the comments of the on-line story on the company home page and an accountant reached out to me, and explained that even though the FAQ referred to the stocks as RSRs in the "After Vesting" section, once they vest, they will no longer be RSRs, and will just be regular stocks, and sellable, and therefore have real value)  (ok, he was 99% sure)

So not only do I not have a clever title, I now don't even have a subject to discuss.  Move along, nothing to see here.

 

A clever sounding title isn't a necessity. If it gets a discussion going.  It's a good topic.