From Severance to Strategy: Wealth Moves for Executives After a Layoff

In today’s economic and corporate landscape, even senior executives and top-tier professionals at Fortune 500 firms are not immune to workforce reductions. For high earners with significant wealth, a forced transition brings both challenges and opportunities.

Yes, the disruption can feel personal. A layoff often touches identity as much as income, especially when your role, team, and track record have been central to how you’ve defined success. But with a robust portfolio, the conversation shifts. This is less about survival and more about preservation, optimization, and alignment.

Handled strategically, a layoff can be a pivotal moment—a chance to realign your wealth, career trajectory, and legacy planning with what matters most. And because the path forward requires both immediate action and long-term strategy, here’s how to think about each.

What to Do in the Short Term

The first priority is clarity and stability. Short-term focus not only creates the foundation for smarter long-term decisions, but it also reduces the likelihood of reactive moves (such as liquidating investments prematurely) that can compromise your broader wealth strategy.

1. Pause, Process, and Reframe

For many executives, professional identity is deeply intertwined with personal worth. Losing a role at the top can feel disorienting. Acknowledge the emotional impact but also recognize the freedom it creates.

Wealth at your level provides optionality. You can choose whether to pursue another C-suite role, build a portfolio career of board service and consulting, or pivot entirely toward personal ventures and philanthropic interests. This is an inflection point: a rare chance to realign wealth, time, and values on your terms.

With perspective in place, the next step is ensuring clarity around your financial footing.

2. Assess Immediate Financial Position

Establishing control begins with a clear picture of your short- and medium-term position. For high-net-worth investors, this isn’t about covering next month’s expenses; it’s about maintaining liquidity, continuity of benefits, and confidence that near-term commitments won’t disrupt long-term plans.

Maintaining access to roughly two years of liquid assets provides stability, while securing uninterrupted healthcare coverage through COBRA, spousal plans, or executive extensions reduces risk. It’s also important to revisit obligations such as tuition, real estate carrying costs, or philanthropic pledges so you can address them proactively.

With these foundations in place, you can turn attention to the details of your severance package.

3. Understand the Full Scope of Your Severance Package

For senior leaders, severance agreements are rarely simple. Beyond the cash payment, packages often include multiple layers of compensation and restrictive covenants that carry long-term implications. Key considerations include:

• Payment structure. Will you receive a lump sum or staged installments? For investors in top tax brackets, installment payments can spread liability and reduce tax drag.
• Equity and incentive awards. RSUs, performance shares, options, and phantom equity each have unique vesting and tax treatment. The right decision balances tax efficiency with concentrated equity risk.
• Deferred compensation and SERPs. Many executives hold significant wealth in nonqualified deferred comp or supplemental retirement plans. Early distribution clauses, creditor exposure, and Section 409A rules require careful review.
• Benefits continuation. In addition to COBRA, packages may extend executive medical coverage, outplacement services, or coaching. These carry meaningful value when negotiated effectively.
• Restrictive covenants. Non-compete and non-solicitation clauses can materially limit consulting, entrepreneurial, or board opportunities. Narrowing these restrictions may preserve income flexibility, making legal review alongside financial guidance critical.

Handled with foresight, severance can serve as more than a short-term bridge. It can provide liquidity, mitigate taxes, and integrate seamlessly into a broader wealth plan.

4. Make Tax-Smart Benefit Decisions

As mentioned, a layoff also often triggers multiple taxable events simultaneously. Without proactive planning, tax drag can be substantial. Consider:

• Income timing: Spreading severance or deferring certain elections may reduce exposure to the highest marginal brackets.
• Roth conversions: If overall income is temporarily lower due to the layoff, it may be an ideal time to convert pre-tax IRA assets to a Roth IRA. This strategy locks in today’s tax rates, creates future tax-free growth, and supports long-term wealth transfer efficiency.
• Equity decisions: Evaluate whether to exercise or hold vested options based on tax exposure, AMT implications, and diversification goals.
• Charitable strategies: If this becomes a peak-income year, funding a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) or Charitable Lead Trust (CLT) may create deductions while advancing philanthropic goals.
• Wealth transfer planning: High-income years can be an opportune time to use gifting strategies, shifting assets into trusts at a more favorable tax cost.

These short-term steps help create stability and prevent missteps. Once they’re addressed, the focus can shift to sustaining and enhancing wealth over the long term.

What to Do in the Long Term

With the immediate pieces in place, the next priority is adjusting your wealth strategy so it reflects your new reality and future aspirations.

1. Refine Portfolio Strategy

Without employment income, portfolios must shoulder greater responsibility for liquidity and stability. That requires recalibration:

• Reassess allocation. Confirm that your portfolio reflects your current tolerance for volatility. Reducing concentration risk while preserving long-term growth is critical.
• Tax-loss harvesting. If markets have dipped, realizing losses now can offset future gains, enhancing efficiency.
• Diversification review. Confirm holdings across accounts, trusts, and retirement vehicles are not duplicating exposure. Hidden concentration in one sector or company stock can increase risk unnecessarily.

This is portfolio refinement, not wholesale restructuring. Done correctly, your wealth remains resilient while aligned with long-term objectives.

2. Reevaluate Comprehensive Wealth Planning

A transition of this scale provides a natural checkpoint for your broader plan. Retirement projections should be recalibrated to incorporate new assumptions around income, spending, and timing, as well as sophisticated factors such as longevity risk and healthcare inflation. Estate and legacy planning deserve equal attention:

• Are your trusts funded properly?
• Do gifting strategies reflect the latest exemption thresholds?
• Does your philanthropic plan align with both family values and tax efficiency?

Liquidity strategy is equally critical. Balancing liquid reserves with illiquid holdings such as private equity, real estate, or closely held businesses provides the capacity to meet obligations without compromising long-term growth.

By addressing these questions, you strengthen your planning framework and keep your wealth structures aligned with the legacy you intend to build.

3. Rely on a Coordinated Advisory Team

Periods of transition are when siloed advice is most dangerous. Taxes, investments, estate planning, and cash flow must be synchronized to avoid missed opportunities or unintended consequences.

A fiduciary advisor supported by an in-house team of specialists can help identify risks, coordinate decisions across every domain of wealth, and provide clarity when emotions run high.

Final Thoughts

For high-net-worth investors, a forced layoff doesn’t erase financial security. It redefines the strategy. By addressing immediate needs while simultaneously refining long-term structures, you protect what you’ve built and create the foundation for what comes next.

Viewed this way, transition becomes less about loss and more about alignment: a chance to optimize, preserve legacy, and pursue the next chapter with confidence.

At Allworth, we call that giving your wealth an advantage. If you’re navigating a career transition or evaluating a severance package, our team is here to help you align every element of your wealth strategy with the next stage of your life.

The information presented is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the topics discussed. It should not be interpreted as personalized investment advice or relied upon as such.

Allworth Financial, LP (“Allworth”) makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, timeliness, suitability, completeness, or relevance of the information presented. While efforts are made to ensure the information’s accuracy, it is subject to change without notice. Allworth conducts a reasonable inquiry to determine that information provided by third party sources is reasonable, but cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Opinions expressed are also subject to change without notice and should not be construed as investment advice.

The information is not intended to convey any implicit or explicit guarantee or sense of assurance that, if followed, any investment strategies referenced will produce a positive or desired outcome. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal. There can be no assurance that any investment strategy or decision will achieve its intended objectives or result in a positive return. It is important to carefully consider your investment goals, risk tolerance, and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.