Grantd, an AI-backed equity compensation and planning platform, has launched its equity compensation advice platform. 

The tool focuses on common forms of stock-based pay, including restricted stock units, incentive stock options, and employee stock purchase plans, and aims to centralize data and decision support around exercise, sale, and tax considerations. 

The “decision support platform,” which is targeted towards advisors, helps them “decide how to help clients with their strategies on equity compensation, what to sell, when to sell it, and at what price, and then how that affects them from a tax optimized standpoint,” Brian McDonald, CEO of Grantd, said in an interview with Connect Money. 

Some of the platform’s capabilities include an AI assistant that extracts and organizes various datapoints, tax planning-related services, and an equity compensation scoring model. 

Grantd initially started building the platform earlier this year and plans to expand it next year with Business-to-Consumer versions, McDonald said. 

McDonald launched Grantd to bridge the gap between financial literacy and client relationships with advisors.  

“Even though [Grantd] is an AI-powered platform, we are given the ability to see data to help [advisors] make decisions and try to understand how that should impact their clients’ overall portfolios,” McDonald said. 

Prior to launching Grantd, McDonald previously served as a managing director at Morgan Stanley and served as the head of the firm’s Work & Digital Solutions division. McDonald also held various roles at Charles Schwab, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In addition to his role at Grantd, McDonald was recently named as a senior advisor to Dynasty Financial Partners, which has taken a minority stake in Grantd. 

The platform’s launch comes after Grantd acquired StockOpter, an equity compensation planning tool. Grantd will combine StockOpter’s capabilities with its AI features to create a new platform that enables financial advisors and their clients with more options for securing equity compensation grants. 

The acquisition adds about 400 registered investment advisor firms that are actively using the platform, McDonald stated. 

In September, Grantd secured $5 million in seed funding, which was led by Edward Jones Ventures and TIFIN Studios. 

As AI continues to rapidly evolve within the financial advisory space, McDonald believes that having the “human in the loop” remains the path forward for providing financial advice. 

“The best advisors need to scale, and they can’t do that without having the best tools. From an equity compensation standpoint, we believe our product will help advisors scale like no other product in the marketplace today.”

Pictured: Brian McDonald