Vesting Schedules - RightCapital Help Center

Vesting schedules within RightCapital are a crucial component of Stock Plan data entry. When clients receive equity compensation in the form of a grant, there is typically a specified term of employment that needs to be contractually fulfilled before taking ownership of the equity. This is referred to as the vesting schedule. Simply put, vesting represents a client's ability to earn rights to equity shares over a period of time.

Vesting schedules can be seen and customized for use in the Advisor Portal > Models > Vesting tab. Once entered within the advisor portal, vesting schedules can be used in each client plan. Vesting schedules can be implemented as part of a stock plan within the Profile > Net Worth section.

Default Vesting Schedules

RightCapital includes three "default" vesting schedules, which are pre-built into every advisor account. The default vesting schedules reflect 3, 4 and 5 year vesting schedules, with equal amounts of equity vesting on an annual basis. For example, in the '4 years vesting annually' schedule, 25% of equity shares will vest each year. Equity shares can only be purchased after they have vested.

The specific year, month, and day that a grant is received will act as the start date for the vesting schedule. Let's assume the grant below is operating on a 4 year annual vesting schedule.

In this example, our Grant Date is 01/18/2024. With a 4 year annual vesting schedule, our grant will be 25% vested on 01/18/2025, 50% vested on 01/18/2026, 75% vested on 01/18/2027, and 100% vested on 01/18/2028.

Adding New Vesting Schedules

In addition to the default vesting schedules, advisors can also create their own custom schedules in the Models > Vesting tab. To create a new vesting schedule, click "Add Vesting" on the left. After being created, the new vesting schedule can be renamed by clicking the "..." icon:

You can also make a copy of an existing model by hovering over a model, and clicking the copy icon to the right of the model name:

After adding a vesting schedule, you can use the 'Vesting Type' and 'Vesting Period' options to tailor the schedule to best suit your needs. Once these are dialed in, you can enter the vesting percentages into each row of the schedule, to determine what percentage of each grant will vest for each time interval. Once the total equals 100%, click the blue Save button in the lower right.

Vesting Type: Choose between Annual, Semi-Annual, Quarterly, and Monthly vesting. The time interval between each row of the schedule will automatically adjust to reflect your chosen option.

Vesting Period: The total number of years for your vesting schedule. You can choose anywhere between 1 and 10 years for the total vesting period.

Note on Monthly Vesting:

When using Monthly as your Vesting Type, the Vesting Period will have a maximum of 5 years, rather than 10.

Re-order Vesting Schedules

When viewing the list of your vesting schedules, RightCapital allows you to change the order they are displayed. Within the list of schedules on the left, you can click on the title of one of the schedules and then drag it to the desired location.

Delete Vesting Schedules

Custom schedules can be deleted by hovering your mouse over a particular schedule, and then clicking the 'x' icon that appears to the right:

Where to Apply Vesting Schedules

After new vesting schedules are created and saved in the Advisor Portal, they can be leveraged in every client plan. Within a stock plan entry in the Profile > Net Worth, you will find your custom vesting options alongside the default schedules:

Only one vesting schedule can be applied per stock plan in the client's Net Worth. If clients have equity grants with different vesting schedules, they must be entered in separate stock plan entries within the Net Worth. For more information on entering stock plans in RightCapital, please click here.

Once applied, you can track stock grants as they vest in two areas:

The Options tab within Retirement > Cash Flows
The Stock Plans module within "..." More Menu > Stock Plans