The vest.
"A big RSU tranche just vested. What do I actually do with it?"
For advisory firms that work with executives and equity pay
AI visibility for executive financial advisors
When an executive with a vest date coming asks AI "who near me actually understands RSUs and stock options?", does it say your firm's name?
AEOptim captures the exact words ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI use when an executive asks about your firm, and the advisors they recommend over you. The Free AI Check runs one question a client would ask through one AI tool, set to your city. About two minutes. Skip the card and the sales call; nothing is posted in your name.
RSU · ISO · ESPP · 10b5-1: a pay package nobody explained, until someone asks AI.
The pathEach step stands alone.
- Free AI Check$0
- Search & Ask Workup$450one time
- Answer Kit$350one time
- AEOptim Visibilityfrom $350a month
The client's questions
An event starts the search
Something happens at work, and the question goes into ChatGPT or Gemini that night, before anyone asks a friend for a name. These are example questions.
The S-1.
"My company filed to go public. What should I get done before the lockup ends?"
The tender offer.
"We got a tender offer. Should I sell into it, and what are the taxes?"
The job change.
"I'm leaving unvested equity behind. How do I weigh the new offer against it?"
The promotion.
"I have deferred comp for the first time. How does 409A work?"
The questions start technical and end with names: who near me understands this. The reply is a few sentences with a firm or two named inside, not a results page to click through. Ranking high on Google doesn't put a firm in those sentences, and in many metros the answer names a national brand's help article, or nobody local.
What each acronym is really asking
Open a card. These are example questions.
RSURestricted stock units
How are RSUs taxed, and why did my vest leave a surprise bill?
What it means for your siteVesting is ordinary income, and the default withholding often runs short. Explain the shortfall plainly.
the tax question
ISOIncentive stock options
When should I exercise my ISOs, and will the AMT hit me?
What it means for your siteExercise timing decides the tax story, and clear ISO pages are rare.
the strategy question
NSONon-qualified stock options
What's the actual tax difference between ISOs and NSOs?
What it means for your siteAI gets asked this comparison constantly. A fair side-by-side page answers both terms at once.
the comparison question
ESPPEmployee stock purchase plan
Is my ESPP worth maxing, and when do I sell the shares?
What it means for your siteThe discount is real and the holding-period math is fiddly. Plain guidance stands out.
the strategy question
10b5-1Prearranged trading plan
What is a 10b5-1 plan, and do I need one to sell during blackout windows?
What it means for your siteExecutives ask AI to explain it before they raise it with counsel, so it's often a first-contact question.
the process question
AMTAlternative minimum tax
What is AMT on stock options, and how do people get caught?
What it means for your siteThe parallel tax that catches ISO exercises. A plain explanation gives AI a reason to bring up your firm.
the tax question
83(b)The thirty-day election
I can early exercise. Do I file an 83(b), and what if I miss the window?
What it means for your siteA one-page filing with a hard thirty-day clock, searched in a mild panic.
the process question
409ADeferred compensation rules
What is 409A deferred comp, and when can I actually touch the money?
What it means for your siteNew senior hires meet these rules cold, and few firms have a readable page on them.
the service question
Underneath most of these sits one question: how do I get out of one stock without a punishing tax bill? A page on your general approach, such as selling across tax years or using a 10b5-1 plan, gives AI a careful answer to repeat.
Check your own site
What AI needs to read before it names an executive advisor
Go down this list with your own site open. For any point it misses, AI borrows a brokerage help page or a rival's wording, or leaves you out.
- That equity pay is your work, on its own pages. "Wealth management for busy professionals" gives AI nothing to match.
- Who you serve, and your minimums. Tech and biotech employees around an IPO, public-company officers, founders. Name the kinds of employers common in your metro.
- What you cover. RSUs, options, ESPPs, 10b5-1 plans, deferred comp, concentrated stock. And that tax filing and legal advice stay with the CPA and counsel.
- How you're paid. Executives ask who pays the person talking before anything else. Flat fee, a percentage of assets, commissions, or a mix, in the words your compliance approves.
- Where the shares land after a sale: your custodian or broker-dealer by name, with a link to your ADV brochure or BrokerCheck page.
- Your CFP, fee-only or fiduciary status, as compliance words it. Those are claims your firm makes, and we print them only in the approved language.
- How someone starts. The first call, whether it's free, and what to bring: a grant letter, a vesting schedule, last year's return.
- Consistent profiles. Executives check LinkedIn as often as your site. If LinkedIn, your Google Business Profile, directories and site describe different firms, AI has to guess which one is current.
What AI can say about your firm, before and after
AI describes what it can read. Two example descriptions of the same kind of firm:
From a typical site:
"A wealth management firm offering personalized financial planning for individuals and families." True, and it matches thousands of other firms.
From a clear site:
"A fee-only planning firm that works with corporate executives on equity pay, concentrated stock and 10b5-1 plans." Specific and checkable, and built from the firm's own pages. Nobody can promise AI will write it, but your site can say it plainly.
Near me
Whose name comes back in your metro?
Example metros
- Seattle and the Eastside
- The Bay Area
- Austin
- New York
- Boston
- Denver and Boulder
- Your metro, measured separately
Equity pay clusters where the employers are, so AI's answers differ by city and by AI tool. "Advisor for stock options near me" is how the question often arrives, and in many metros the answer is thinner than the demand.
Plan-specific questions travel without a location, so firms that meet by video compete in your market too. An answer about ISOs can read differently on the second try, so AEOptim Visibility runs each question several times and reports only changes that repeat.
Client vocabulary
Plan-document terms, in plain English
These come straight out of grant agreements. Define them on your site and AI has your wording to quote.
- Double-trigger vesting
- RSUs that need both time and a liquidity event before they're really yours.
- Tender offer
- A set window to sell private shares, with a deadline and a tax bill attached.
- Lockup
- The months after an IPO when employees can't sell.
- Blackout window
- The stretches when insiders can't trade, and the reason trading plans exist.
- Concentrated position
- Too much net worth in one stock, often the same company that pays the salary.
- QSBS
- Qualified small business stock. Founders and early employees ask AI about it by name.
An example: the plan document says "shares subject to the award shall be released upon satisfaction of both the time-based and liquidity-event conditions." The executive asks AI, "What is double-trigger vesting, and when do I owe tax on it?" Your page answers in plain English.
What a clear site does
How your website helps AI help them
Here's what an assistant can do for an executive once your pages are plain:
Find you
for the question asked, in your metro or for a specific kind of equity pay.
Get the details right.
It relays your pages as they stand. A fee schedule from three years ago is the fee schedule it relays.
Tell an executive whether you're a fit.
State your minimums, who you serve and how you're paid, and AI can answer that before anyone calls you.
Get them to your calendar link.
Assistants don't have booking deals with financial advisors yet. They can share your scheduling page or number, and the executive follows up. A page that lists what to bring (grant letter, vesting schedule) with a request form turns that into a call.
Google's guidance is that its AI answers need no special files or code; plain pages and correct listings are what it uses.
What we won't do
The lines we don't cross, for executive work
We write advisory copy under the SEC Marketing Rule. Testimonials go out with the disclosures the rule calls for, and a performance claim goes nowhere until your compliance has reviewed it.
- General information, not advice. Pages explain how RSUs, options and 10b5-1 plans work in general. A client's own exercise or sale decision stays in your meetings, and tax and legal questions go to the CPA and counsel.
- No company-specific promises. A general page about how ESPPs work is fine. We don't publish claims about a named employer's plan that you haven't checked.
- Never "best," "top-rated" or "expert" about your firm. "Fiduciary," "fee-only" or "CFP" appear only where compliance approved them.
- Registered with a broker-dealer? FINRA Rule 2210 needs a principal's approval on retail communications before use; nothing of ours goes up first. Regulatory Notice 26-14 floats a change to that review. It's still a proposal, so the current rule holds.
- No access to grant data or client files. AEOptim doesn't link to your CRM, planning software or clients' equity statements. It reads what's public: your site and listings.
- A log for compliance. Drafts in AEOptim Visibility wait in a review queue, each with a dated record of the draft, the edits and the approval.
- Your approval comes before anything carries your name.
- We make no promise about rankings or AI mentions, because none can be kept.
The path, with prices
What the check shows, and what comes next
$0
Free AI Check
One live AI engine (Perplexity), one client question, in your city. The answer as it came back, names included. About two minutes. No card.
$450, one time
Search & Ask Workup
Five AI engines: Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. Plus live Google search data: what people in your market search for and who ranks ahead of you. A fix list, in order, and the report is yours to hand to anyone.
$350, one time
Answer Kit
Your homepage and up to six service pages. Answers to the questions executives ask, drafted only from what your pages already say. Facts about your services, not advice. You approve every answer.
from $350 a month
AEOptim Visibility
Your questions re-asked monthly on all five engines, several runs each, with a plain verdict on whether a change is real. Higher plans add an AI assistant that drafts work for your approval. Change or stop any month.
If AI has your firm's details wrong across directories, Web Everything's Listings Cleanup fixes the record at the source.
If you'd rather have it done for you: Web Everything.
Owner questions
FAQ
Do executives really ask AI which advisor to trust?
Some do, often late at night with a vest date coming. The questions start with RSUs or AMT and end with "who near me understands this." The free check lets you see the answer they get in your city.
Their stock plan already sits at a big brokerage. How does a smaller firm get named?
AI doesn't read the brokerage portal. It reads the open web, where a firm that explains equity pay plainly can be easier to name than a company writing for everyone.
Most executives reach us through their CPA or attorney. Why add this?
A referred executive often puts your name into AI before replying, and people without a referral start there. If AI describes you thinly or names someone else, some referrals don't turn into a first call.
Can this get through our compliance review, or our broker-dealer's?
It's drafted to fit SEC, state and FINRA rules, and you approve each word. Your own compliance reviewer has the final word on your state. Mostly it's facts: which employers' people you serve, how you charge, which plans you cover, how the first call works.
Is this just SEO with a new name?
They're related. SEO aims at a page of links; AI writes one answer and names a firm or two. Your SEO still helps. This measures what AI says about you and shows what your pages are missing.
How fast does this show up in AI answers?
There's no date anyone can promise, and a promised one should make you suspicious. You'll see today's answers, then a monthly read on whether they've moved.
Where should we begin?
Give the Free AI Check your city. Two minutes; no marketing background needed, and nothing near an ethics line.
This page is general information about AI visibility for advisory firms. It is not investment, tax, or legal advice, and nothing here promises a ranking, a citation, client growth, or any specific outcome.
Start here
See what AI says when an executive in your city asks who understands equity pay.
Prefer a conversation first? Reach us at 313-395-8171 or human@aeoptim.com.
Last updated September 26, 2026. AEOptim, a Web Everything company.