W-2 income, RSU vesting, and bonus compensation are taxed at top rates as they arrive. Planning here is about deductions, credits, and the timing of what you control.
For a high earner, the controllable levers are fewer but still significant: transferable energy credits purchased at a discount to face value, direct energy or drilling investments whose deductions offset active income, deferred compensation elections where the plan allows, charitable structures in concentrated-income years, and disciplined loss harvesting in the taxable portfolio.
Concentrated employer stock adds a second dimension. Vesting schedules, 10b5-1 plans, exchange funds, and charitable remainder trusts each manage the position differently, and the right mix depends on your basis, your view on the stock, and your liquidity needs.
Our approach is to project your liability for the current and following year first, then size strategies against the projection. Buying more credits than you have tax, or generating deductions you cannot use, is a common and avoidable error.
Purchase clean-energy tax credits at a discount to face value and apply them against your federal liability.
Read the overview →Intangible drilling cost deductions can offset active income in year one. The tax feature is real; so is the geology.
Read the overview →Diversify a concentrated stock position without a sale by pooling shares with other investors in a partnership.
Read the overview →Own the index as individual positions and harvest losses continuously to offset gains elsewhere in your financial life.
Read the overview →Sell appreciated assets inside a tax-exempt trust, defer the gain across a payout stream, and take a deduction up front.
Read the overview →A first meeting covers your situation, the strategies that plausibly apply, and what we would need to review before recommending anything.
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