A practice built around one idea.
Equity is the most valuable — and most misunderstood — part of a technologist’s financial life. Fortrove exists to make it the part you understand best.
I’m Joe Forish, the founder of Fortrove Partners, a fee-only fiduciary financial planning firm based in New York City. I help founders and tech employees make smart decisions about stock options, RSUs, and concentrated company stock. Fortrove works with clients nationwide, virtually.
If a meaningful share of your wealth is tied to company stock, the decisions can get complicated quickly. When should you exercise your options? What should you do with vested RSUs? And if an IPO, tender offer, or other liquidity event is coming, what should you be doing now to prepare?
You shouldn’t have to figure all of that out on your own.
Who I work with
I built Fortrove to help founders and tech employees make thoughtful decisions about their equity compensation, and to see how those decisions fit into the rest of their financial lives.
I work almost exclusively with people paid in equity at high-growth tech companies. I’ve written in-depth guides for employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anduril, and many of my clients are early- to senior-career employees and founders navigating their first major liquidity decisions.
Fortrove is a fee-only fiduciary. I don’t earn commissions or sell products, which removes the biggest conflicts of interest in this industry. As a fiduciary, I act in your best interest.
What we work on together
- When to exercise ISOs or NSOs, and how to manage AMT
- Whether an 83(b) election makes sense
- What to hold or sell as RSUs vest
- Preparing for a tender offer, secondary sale, or IPO
- Diversifying concentrated stock, including 10b5-1 plans
- QSBS eligibility and timing sales across tax years
My background
My approach to client service started long before Fortrove. Growing up in my family’s small business taught me what it means to take care of people, and how personal the decisions around a business can become.
Before founding Fortrove, I invested in public and private equity markets at institutional investment firms. Working on that side of the table gave me a different lens on company stock than most financial planners bring.
I earned a B.S. in Finance and International Business from Pennsylvania State University and completed the Harvard Business Analytics Program certificate with Distinction.
Verify my CFP® certification · View Fortrove’s SEC adviser record
Let’s talk
If your equity has become an increasingly important, and increasingly complicated, part of your financial life, let’s talk. You don’t need to have all the answers, or even know exactly what to ask. That’s what the first conversation is for.
Outside the office
When I’m not working with clients, you’ll usually find me on a tree-lined ski run, or longboard surfing when it’s glassy and cloudy. I live in New York City with my wife, Linda.
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Three commitments.
They aren’t marketing lines — they’re structural. Each one changes how the relationship works.
Fee-only
We are paid by our clients — never by commissions or product sales. The only incentive is your outcome, which keeps our advice honest.
Fiduciary
We are legally and ethically bound to act in your best interest, at all times. Not “suitable.” Best. There is a real difference.
Specialized
We work almost exclusively with equity-compensated technologists, so the hard parts of your plan are the parts we do every single day.
The relationship, in three steps.
Straightforward guidance and individual attention — so you can make confident decisions about your financial future.
A conversation, first
Before anything else, we talk. The goal of the first meeting is simply to find out whether this is the right partnership — for both of us. No pressure, no pitch.
Map the whole picture
Cash flow, goals, vesting timelines, tax exposure, and every form of equity you hold. We build one clear roadmap that connects the decisions to each other.
Decide, then execute
Exercises, elections, diversification, and tax moves — coordinated with your CPA each year, and revisited as your equity and your life change.