Basics: Benefits
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Articles (Jump to FAQs)
Marilyn Renninger
Stock options aren't just for the folks on mahogany row any more. But turning stock options into the real green stuff takes some know-how. You need to know certain features of your grant to decide when to exercise your options and sell the stock.
William Baldwin
Rather than providing you with a guarantee, today's benefit plans offer only an
opportunity to attain financial security. The decisions you must make will turn some of you into financial winners.
Joanna Glasner and Bruce Brumberg
Don't be discouraged by stock market volatility and underwater stock options. As the experts note, stock grants are tools for building wealth in the long term.
Loren Rodgers
You feel let down by your stock options. Your company's stock price has dropped, leaving you with underwater options, and the cash flow from expected option riches has evaporated.
Katie Hafner
The New York Times, 11/12/07
A happy tale about the difference that stock options can make in the lives of ordinary workers, especially at pre-IPO companies which become successful and then go public.
Ben Charny
MarketWatch, 2/9/07
The YouTube millionaires are a dramatic, if unusual, reminder of the riches that stock options can create. The YouTube phenomenon may even give stock options new luster as a technique for recruiting employees.
Jessica Guynn
San Francisco Chronicle, 11/12/06
Stock options remain a powerful lure for attracting employees to private companies, although attitudes and expectations have changed. Stock options let you participate in the value you're creating at your company, and their potential ranges from substantial wealth to nothing at all.
Tom Taulli
Forbes, 5/16/06
Stock options remain alive and well at early-stage companies, which continue to embrace the idea that talented workers with entrepreneurial foresight and a belief in the business will accept options over cash for a chance of large financial gains in the future. An ownership culture fostered by stock options can also align the goals of managers and staff.
Gerry Ledford, Matthew Lucy, and Peter LeBlanc
Perspectives (Sibson Consulting), 1/5/04
Stock options have a positive impact on company culture, with modest effects on employee motivation and performance.
Christopher Farrell
BusinessWeek, 9/20/02
Much of shareholder value in the new economy is created by a corporate culture that values human and intellectual capital throughout the organization. (Registration is required.)
Craig Schneider
CFO.com, 11/08/00
Has volatility in internet and technology stocks soured employees on stock options? Surprisingly, no.
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FAQs (Jump to articles)
By granting you a stock option, your company gives you the right to buy its stock at a fixed price during a specified period. This right does not cost you anything. However...
Companies make these grants for a variety of reasons...
The National Center for Employee Ownership cites part of a study on whether options really motivate, attract, and retain workers...
Stock options give you the opportunity to buy shares of stock at a price that is fixed on the grant date, regardless of what the market price is when you exercise...
Stock options allow employees and other service-providers to share in the growth of a company's value without risking their money until they exercise the options to buy the shares...
If your employer is a publicly traded company (e.g., on a stock exchange such as NYSE or NASDAQ), your employer is required to file...
If your employer is a for-profit corporation, it probably can offer stock options to its employees. There may, however, be many reasons why your employer is not offering options...
You could mistakenly let the options expire without exercising them. You do not have your vested options for life...
A clawback is triggered when you leave to work for a direct competitor or engage in...
You become an owner in your company, with all the financial upside and risks that any investment can bring. By participating in the plan...
The future value and its certainty depend on whether you are at a public or a private company. You determine the practical cash value of options in public companies by noting the...
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