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Description:
While rising stock values are always good, challenges can emerge for companies with high stock prices and that issue equity broadly to their employees. Whether a company utilizes sell-to-cover tax withholding or withholds shares for taxes at vest, participants are typically required to sell a whole share to the market to obtain the cash to pay taxes, or a whole share is withheld with the remainder going to the employee. Many employees would have instead kept the remaining value in company shares than receive the money for the difference, or having an additional amount go to taxes. By allowing the participant to sell a portion of a share to cover the tax obligations at vest, or withholding a fractional share at vest, the employee can retain a higher ownership in the company, which has numerous advantages.
Hear presenters from Amazon, Microsoft, and Moss Adams describe the journey to creating an enhanced participant experience by creating a fractional share at vest offering and learn the details, including the rationale for allowing fractional shares at vest, the challenges encountered during implementation, and the many lessons learned along the way.
Speakers:
Fernando Herrera, CEP | Microsoft
Fernando is a Stock Programs Manager at Microsoft. Since 2016, Fernando has managed broad-based RSU vests and domestic payroll reporting, restricted trading window implementation and vendor management. Fernando also managed Microsoft’s ESPP from 2016-2021. Fernando has worked on various projects for Microsoft with Moss Adams including fractional share withholding, updating taxation for retirement vesting, state to state reporting integration into SAP payroll, and internal stock tool enhancements. Prior to Microsoft, Fernando worked at Mattel, Inc. where he led the implementation to a fully outsourced stock administration model. Prior to Mattel, Inc., Fernando worked at William O’Neil and Co., where he provided technical and fundamental analysis on publicly traded companies in the US and Southeast Asia. He holds a BS from the University of California, Riverside and is a Certified Equity Professional.
LeeAnn Aja, ECA | Amazon
LeeAnn Aja is the Stock Plan Manager Employee Investment Services at Amazon.com based in Seattle. LeeAnn is responsible for stock plan administration along with the processing of equity transactions for all employees at Amazon. Amazon operates a broad-based restricted stock unit program for over 500,000 employees in 57 countries. LeeAnn has over 5 years of experience working with employee equity programs for U.S. multi-national companies. Prior to joining Amazon in 2016, she spent 3 years in a 401K benefits role at a large health care organization. LeeAnn received her B.A. in Human Resource Management and Business Administration from Boise State University in Idaho. She earned her Equity Compensation Associates (ECA) in November 2020, and is currently pursuing her CEP certification.
Tim Oakes | Moss Adams
Tim Oakes is a Managing Director at Moss Adams, Business Solutions Group. Tim has over 20 years of experience building systems to help companies manage employee HR, Compensation and Equity Compensation processes. Tim enjoys being involved on all aspects of a system development project: business justification and requirements, business process design, development and testing, production rollout and implementation, system stabilization and future enhancements.