Employee Stock Option Programs

Employee stock option programs can be extremely rewarding for employees when their companies reap profits. William Blair & Company's CES group offers professional assistance with incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options, and stock options granted to affiliates. We work closely with clients and third-party resources to coordinate tracking, financing, and the exercise of stock options. We can assign a qualified William Blair & Company advisor to a client's company to provide its employees with educational seminars that explain option exercise strategies. These strategies include:

• Cashless option exercise (no cash outlay is necessary)
   
• Cash exercise (employee pays both cost of shares and taxes)
   
• Partial same-day sale (employee sells enough stock to cover the cost of the option and taxes, then exercises the remaining options to give the employee the opportunity to hold the underlying stock)