Your Snowflake Benefits & Career: Financial Planning for Employees and Executives

Do you work at Snowflake? Get the resources you need and expert insights from financial professionals who specialize in helping Snowflake employees make the most of their compensation package and benefits.

Whether you’re a new Snowflake employee or you’ve moved up the ranks into a management or executive leadership role over a multi-year career, it’s important to make smart money moves with your income and employee benefits. For example:

✅ Do you know the right moves to make to get the greatest value from the Snowflake benefits available to you?

✅If you’re thinking about leaving Snowflake for another job or planning to retire from the company in a few years, are you taking the right steps today to ensure you will receive all of the compensation and benefits that you’ve earned?

Get the Most Value from Your Snowflake Benefits and Compensation Package

Throughout the year, Snowflake provides its employees and executives with updates about their benefits ranging from health insurance and health savings plans to retirement plans like a 401(k), deferred compensation plans, and stock options. While the company offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with Snowflake who specialize in helping Snowflake employees make the most of their income and benefits.

Whether you work in the Snowflake headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, another office location around the country, or remotely from home, you may have questions about your compensation package and benefits better suited for a financial professional who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.

For example, sensitive topics like discussing the steps you should take before quitting your job at Snowflake to work elsewhere, protecting yourself in advance of a corporate layoff, or deciding when you should plan to retire are all conversations that may be more comfortable with a trusted financial advisor.

💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with Snowflake employees to help them make smart decisions to get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not yet answered? Use the form below to submit questions anonymously and watch this article for updates with answers to your questions. You can also reach out to the financial advisors below to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions by email.

💸 Smart Money Insights for Snowflake Employees & Executives

This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:

1. Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Snowflake Employees & Executives
2. Get Answers to Your Questions About Your Snowflake Benefits and Career
3. Quick Facts & Resources for Snowflake Employees
4. Browse Related Articles

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Snowflake Employees & Executives

Answers to Employee Questions with Ben Hockema, CFP®

Ben Hockema is a financial advisor based in Barrington, Illinois, who specializes in offering financial planning services to Snowflake employees. Ben helps his clients get the most value from their Snowflake benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.

Q: When you first speak with a Snowflake employee, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?

Ben: Snowflake employees have a vibrant chat forum where they share personal finance tips. Unfortunately, I have found many employees use these one-size-fits-all suggestions from their coworkers without a full understanding of the nuances that make their own situation unique.

One of the most important first steps when working with Snowflake employees is to get a firm understanding of their specific situation, regardless of the benefits available to them. We focus on answering questions such as “What is enough?” and “What does financial security mean to you?” before trying to solve for the optimal solution.

Snowflake has a wide range of benefits available, many at no cost, but none are applicable to all Snowflake employees.  

Q: Is there a particular benefit available to Snowflake employees you feel isn’t as well utilized or understood by employees as it should be?

Ben: There are several Snowflake benefits that are not utilized efficiently. Here is a quick summary of four that are useful: 

• HSA – Many employees understand the value of saving to an HSA, but they are missing out on one of the long-term benefits of investing in a tax-free way. We like to have Snowflake clients save the maximum to their Snowflake HSA (including employer contributions), to reduce income and payroll taxes, then rollover the HSA balance to an HSA investment account. This will then grow tax-free all the way to retirement.
• Limited Purpose Healthcare FSA – Many Snowflake employees enroll in an HSA, but do not look into the Limited Purpose Healthcare FSA (LPHC FSA). This LPHC FSA can be used for things like dental cleanings, vision exams and contact lenses. You can contribute to the max to the HSA and still contribute to the LPHC FSA. However, unlike HSAs, you need to make sure to use your LPHC FSA in the same you contribute, as much of the balance will not carry over to future years.
• Dependent Daycare FSA – This is a vehicle to pay for childcare with pre-tax dollars. For most Snowflake employees with children in daycare, contributing to the maximum each year can result in a nice tax break.
• Legal Plan – In my experience, Snowflake employees tend to not have proper estate planning documents (such as Wills, Powers of Attorney, etc.) in place. One major reason is the cost. By using the voluntary company Legal Plan benefit, Snowflake employees can meet with attorneys around the country to craft many different types of legal documents at steep discounts, including putting together a basic estate plan.

Q: For Snowflake employees thinking about leaving the company to accept a job elsewhere, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?

Ben: Make sure you have a plan to exercise vested options and your timing is aligned with vesting schedules for any ESPP and RSUs.  If that sounds complicated, it’s because it is.  Also often overlooked, coordinating health insurance in the middle of the year is important.  Sometimes, this means it is better to stay on COBRA with your Snowflake plan even if you’re eligible for a reduced premium health insurance with your new employer until it’s a new benefit year. 

Get to Know Ben Hockema, Financial Advisor for Snowflake Employees:

View Ben’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.

Q: For Snowflake employees who have managed their finances on their own to this point, what would you suggest they consider to help them decide if they should begin working with a financial advisor at this stage in their lives?

Ben: Snowflake is a unique company in that it offers ESPP, ISOs and RSUs.  The tax considerations can get complicated quickly.  The Snowflake stock price has been very volatile which can make it difficult to decide when to sell if you don’t have a long-term plan in place.   

We have found that many Snowflake clients let the “tax tail wag the dog”, meaning they are making decisions with only taxes in mind without see the full picture. If you find yourself focusing exclusively on avoiding taxes and are still worried about the changing stock price day-to-day and quarter-to-quarter, then having a financial planner to focus on the big picture can be vital. 

Q: What are some of the unique financial planning challenges you commonly see among your clients who are Snowflake employees and how do you help them overcome these obstacles?

Ben: There are many Snowflake employees that I have talked to who have anchored their price expectations to the all-time peak, which is almost double the current share price (as of March 2024).  This can lead to delaying benefits in your lifetime because you’re always waiting for what could have been. A good financial advisor can help you put a plan in place regardless of the current (or historical) Snowflake price. 

Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who worked at Snowflake when you realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?

Ben: We have several Snowflake clients that had Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) with very low exercise prices. This creates significant tax headaches, with many clients needing to pay AMT to get favorable tax treatment in future years, all while the stock price fluctuates wildly. We initially focus less on short-term after-tax optimization and more on building a financial foundation that will create more future opportunities. This means that we want to balance long-term upside with converting current paper net worth to true financial freedom. 

I will always remember the text that I received from one of our clients after we completed the initial sales of ISOs. It was a picture of the happy married couple at a nice dinner toasting champagne, knowing that after this initial sale, all of their foundational financial needs were taken care of. We have retained significant ISOs for them, with a long-term plan in place on when to sell. However, the clients continue to sleep well at night, knowing that they don’t need any of the upside of these ISOs anymore. The changing stock price doesn’t have an emotional effect after this initial sale, as all their needs are covered. 

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