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Summary: A must-have for anyone with employee stock options
Review: It's shocking the misconceptions I was operating under before I learned the concepts explained in this book. I was assuming that if someone had been issued options with a 10-year shelf life, they should just wait until 9.5 years have passed, before deciding whether to exercise or not. Wrong. Doing that might result in that person's paying MUCH more in taxes than they needed to. There are a lot of considerations and details to learn, regarding employee stock options. And Kaye Thomas has explained them extremely clearly and readably. That's why I've recommended this book to friends and others at Fool.com.
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Summary: One Terrific, Easy-To-Understand Book
Review: Kaye Thomas has done a wonderful job explaining such complicated tax laws relating to equity compensation. I thought I might pick up a few tips, but I picked up a lot more than just a few! This book is a must if you receive equity compensation.
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Summary: Ideal reading for the non-specialist general reader.
Review: Kaye Thomas' Consider Your Options is the first to provide a plain language explanation of all the popular forms of equity compensation including stock grants, nonqualified options, incentive stock options, and employee stock purchases plans. All aspects and issues are covered ranging from basic definitions, investment strategies, taxes, and financial planning implications. Ideal for the non-specialist general reader, Consider Your Options is a "must" for anyone considering any form of corporate equity compensation as part of their overall financial affairs and portfolios.
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Summary: Consider Your Options
Review: Like many people today, I've received stock options and tried to puzzle out what it all means. In no time at all, I've gotten confused by Alternative Minimum Tax, Non Qualified and Qualified Options, Disqualifying Dispositions, and many other unfamiliar terms. Kaye Thomas' book, together with Fairmark.com his website, provides the best source of information on this complex subject that I've found. I've referred many friends to his website when they've asked me about their options, and now I point them to his book as well. If Mr. Thomas' book saves you from making a single mistake with your options, it will pay for itself a hundred times.
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Summary: Consider Your Options
Review: Mr. Thomas knows how to lay your options out in plain, simple English. He has an effective and informative style that makes sense of gobbledeygook. After thousands of dollars in legal and accounting fees these were the first straight answers I have been given to the questions and scenarios I am struggling with. Well worth the price of the book. Options are nothing to screw around with. The IRS seems to have targeted this form of comp for their most evil form of torturous logic. Make an informed decision, read this book.
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Summary: Money well spent
Review: No matter how well you think you understand the world of stock options, there's a good chance you will find some nugget of information in here that could save you A LOT of money.In my case, I work for a small company. I actually had the company amend their stock option agreement based on information I found in this book. Based on the projected IPO price, this amendment will likely save me over $100,000 in the future. A prior reviewer complained about the book and recommended a "tax professional". First, I have read this and Pastore's book, and this is hands down a better treatment of the subject. Second, if you are outside of Silicon Valley, then I wish you the best of luck in finding a CPA that knows anything beyond the basics as far as ISOs and 83(b) elections are concerned. Buy the book AND find a tax professional. A tax professional does not have such a vested interest in your financial future, and you don't have his vast knowledge of the tax codes. I found that working together with my CPA and this book, we were able to do some excellent tax planning.
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Summary: Waste no time getting up to speed on Stock Options
Review: One of the few books available today on incentive (ISO) and non-qualified (NQ) stock options this does an excellent job of describing the basic ins and outs of how each type of employee stock option works. Unlike "Stock Options" by Robert Pastore, which is quite dry, this introductory book presents the material concisely and in a well-organized manner to quickly get up to speed. Of course a significant amount of the material found in this book can be read for free on the publisher's website. I would also highly recommend purchasing Pastore's book since it provides more strategies that you can actually apply, but read "Considering Your Options" first and then just flip through Pastore's book this to look at the strategies. Just keep in mind that both of these books are only a first step at figuring out what you plan on doing. There is no substitute for a good tax account who is knowledgeable in the areas of stock options and estate planning. In addition there are many strategies that exist which aren't covered in either of these books. If you are trying to sort out what your strategy is for exercising your stock options it is well worth your time to read both of these. And you can't beat the price. If nothing else it saves you from shelling out $175/hour to hear an experienced tax accountant educate you on the basics.
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Summary: Good overview that helps you figure out what you don't know
Review: Reading this book may not provide you with all the answers, but it will help you ask all the right questions of your CPA. A few hours spent reading this title will give you a solid understanding of the fundamentals of options: stock, options, grants, exercise, strike price, employee stock purchase plans, AMT, and so on. More importantly, it will give you a good understanding of the complex tax issues that options may expose you to. And most importantly, it will make very clear the questions you need to ask in interviewing a prospective accountant, and in working with an accountant or financial planner. The average reader is not likely to garner enough information to fully plan their option liquidation by themselves (multiyear strategies for minimizing AMT, for example, are beyond the scope of this book), but at least you'll know what sorts of things your accountant should be working out for you.
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Summary: Best book on Options out of the four I got
Review: Structuring a deal with two companies to work for options - and needed some advice. Bought every book that I could get my hands on 1. Consider Your Options Kaye A. Thomas (Harvard Lawyer - (male) ) GREAT! Excellent advise parceled out with just the right amount of depth - but gets to the meaty stuff. Really told me not only what I wanted to know - but other things that I didn't know I needed to know. Easy to read - learned - good stuff.
2. Better Than Money David E. Gumpert - Not as learned a book - but easy reading and focused on the employee side. Addressed several issues about negotiation of options in a hire situation
3. Pay Me In Stock Options C.E. Curtis - Hard Back - but cheap. I would not recommend - a hard read, not organized
4. Stock Options for Dummies Alan R. Simon The basics - and well done - but didn't address several of the issues that I wanted to know....How to get more ....and the psychology aspect of obtaining them.
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Summary: Good Background , But ...
Review: This book covers a wide variety of topics behind the complexities of equity compensation. As more and more of the working US population start to receive options from their enlightened employers the more valuable a book like this becomes. If you have had zero or minimal exposure to stock options and the tax strategies and implications that go along with them - then get this book. However, be warned that although it will give you a good overview, and drills down in some areas - it is NO substitute for speaking with a tax professional. If you have never even heard of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) then you will get a good grounding in the subject and know just enough to be both dangerous , but ask smart questions too. If I had any criticism of the book it is that many of the chapters are very short and terse, and just as Kaye Thomas starts to bring up interesting points, he stops. Also, all of the examples are wordy (suppose you have 2000 options priced at $20, the stock trades at $27.50, but ...) . Some graphics and a few tables would have made many of the examples much clearer. Bottom Line - unless you are a CPA or a tax guru, you will get enough out of this book to justify the purchase price. Its probably tax deductible too
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