The Situation

Gabriela, 41, spent nine years at Amazon in Seattle, most recently as a senior technical program manager. Between her base salary and vesting AMZN, her household cleared north of $340,000 a year. She and her husband Daniel, a middle-school teacher, were raising two kids, carrying a mortgage, and doing most things right — maxing her 401(k), keeping a healthy emergency fund, and handing everything to a solid CPA each April.

Then came a January reorg. Her role was eliminated. The package was fair on paper: roughly four months of severance paid as a lump sum, a block of unvested RSUs forfeited, and health coverage ending at the close of the month. But a big share of the family's net worth was still tied up in AMZN — she had always meant to diversify "after the next vest" — and suddenly the paychecks stopped while the questions piled up.

The Gap We Found

Nobody had done anything wrong. Her CPA files taxes in April; her 401(k) provider manages her 401(k); her severance was calculated correctly by HR. But no one was looking at the whole board at once. Being laid off in January meant the rest of 2026 would be a dramatically lower-income year — a rare, temporary tax window — at the exact moment she was sitting on a concentrated, highly appreciated stock position and about to spend down savings on health insurance and living costs. The severance timing, the income cliff, the concentration risk, and the healthcare gap were all connected. No one had connected them.

What We Did

First, we built the runway. We mapped a 60-day cashflow plan — severance net of taxes, emergency reserves, and a lean bridge budget — so the family was never forced to sell AMZN at a bad moment just to cover expenses. On healthcare, we compared COBRA against an ACA marketplace plan. Because household income was about to fall sharply, she now qualified for marketplace premium subsidies that hadn't been available while she was fully employed, cutting the coverage bill meaningfully.

Then we turned the low-income back half of the year into offense. With her income cliff opening up lower tax brackets, we used the window to diversify: selling concentrated AMZN lots using specific-lot identification while capital gains were taxed at a far lower rate, and pairing those sales with tax-loss harvesting on underwater lots to offset the gains. The result was a large, deliberate step out of a single-stock position at close to no tax cost. We also modeled a partial Roth conversion to "fill up" the newly empty lower brackets with income taxed cheaply now and never again.

Finally, we handled the quiet landmine. Her severance was withheld at the flat 22% federal supplemental rate, which under-withheld given the RSUs that had already vested earlier in the year. Alphanso's AI agents parsed her final Amazon payroll and vesting data, calculated what was actually owed, and set the right quarterly estimated payments — so a lump-sum severance didn't quietly become an April penalty surprise.

The Result

• Diversified roughly $180,000 out of a concentrated AMZN position at an effective tax rate near zero by harvesting in the low-income window.
• Cut projected healthcare costs by about $9,600 for the year by moving from COBRA to a subsidized marketplace plan.
• Avoided an estimated $6,000 under-withholding penalty with proactively calculated quarterly payments.
• Walked away with a written 60-day plan and roughly 18 months of runway — so the next role could be the right one, not just the first one.

Why This Worked

A layoff feels like a purely defensive moment, but for Gabriela it was also a rare planning opportunity — one that's only visible if someone is looking at taxes, investments, cashflow, and benefits together. Because Alphanso works as a flat-fee fiduciary, there was no product to sell and no incentive to keep her concentrated; the only goal was the smartest use of a temporary low-income year. That's the difference integration makes. Request a callback to see what a plan would look like for your situation.

This case study is a composite illustration based on real Alphanso client scenarios. Names and identifying details have been changed for privacy. Results are not guaranteed and will vary based on individual circumstances. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Alphanso LLC is a registered investment adviser.