Many books discuss the tax, legal, and other aspects of equity compensation, but this book is focused on helping you decide what kinds of equity to use, and who should get how much and when. Are options a better fit than restricted stock? What are the pros and cons of phantom stock and stock appreciation rights? Should employees be able to buy stock? If so, how? Who will be eligible, and under what rules? How will awards be earned, and how will the company provide liquidity for them?

These and other issues are often either ignored or dealt with by guessing, applying rules of thumb, or using someone's boilerplate solution. This book is designed to help you make educated, reasoned decisions about the equity compensation strategies you need, not the ones that someone else might want you to use. At the same time, it also covers the general legal, tax, and other rules applicable to each plan type.

In the third edition, every chapter has been reviewed and updated. The accounting chapter was almost completely replaced, for example, and important changes in securities law were incorporated in the relevant chapters. Additionally, every chapter now has a table of contents.