Can I enter future restricted stock units as employee stock options?

MRA does not currently have a dedicated account type for restricted stock units (RSUs). Modelling them fully would require the future vesting and distribution dates, tax withholding and any restrictions on selling. Wealthica can update the receiving accounts as shares vest, but past transactions do not supply that future schedule.

There are two workarounds for future awards:

1. Enter the expected amount as income. In INCOMES, choose Add Income, select Other and choose Income as the tax treatment. Enter the expected gross amount with the same start and end date, using a separate entry for each vesting date. If you have already estimated the amount for that future date, use the FUTURE currency field. You estimate the share-price growth yourself with this approach.

2. Approximate the shares with employee stock options. Create a separate non-registered account, open Edit Investments and add an Employee stock options investment in the shares’ currency. For US shares, use the USD investment button and select the underlying stock, for example Oracle. Enter the number vesting in Number of shares in option and the vesting date in Exercise date. Use an Exercise price of 0.01; the current form rejects zero. Add a separate option entry for each vesting date.

For a stock covered by MRA’s market-data service, its price is updated nightly. TIME MACHINE projects the underlying price to the exercise date using its capital-growth assumption, then converts the option value into shares. As awards vest in real life, delete the corresponding manual options once the vested shares or cash are recorded in the receiving accounts, whether updated manually or through Wealthica. Enter new options for later awards as needed.

There are two specific limitations to the option workaround in the current code. It still uses the employee-stock-option tax calculation, which can apply a reduced taxable amount; the nominal exercise price does not make the entire vesting value taxable as Income. Also, before exercise, the option is excluded from the market-simulation and market-crash return overrides. After exercise, the resulting shares can follow those scenarios. This workaround therefore models the shares and their vesting, but not the full RSU tax treatment or simulated growth before vesting.