There are different stock programs that vary from employer to employer, including:

- Stock Options

- Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)

- Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs)

- Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)

Your HR department will typically provide a benefits manual that dives into each of their stock offerings, but these tend to be long and difficult to understand. So, what can you do?

If you are a business owner looking to retire, you may face some challenges.

Instead of selling or transferring the enterprise, you may be forced to liquidate your business. Indeed, only 25 percent of new businesses make it to 15 years or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And liquidation can often mean getting less than 100 percent of a business’s value. And, since many business owners have a substantial amount of their net worth intertwined with their business, that can have negative implications for their retirement.

One day you’ll sell your business or transfer it to the next generation. You have a succession plan, so you have a good idea who will be eventually taking over, when the planned sale or transition will take place, and how much money you will have after the deal closes.

Regardless of when you plan to sell the business and to whom, it’s important to put a strategy into place now, for how you will manage the proceeds from the sale. This is especially important when the sale of the business is the culmination of a career, and the beginning of your retirement.

As Mike Tyson once famously said, “Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.” The recent market volatility is a stern reminder for retirees of just how important it is to have a plan. It is also a reminder that when it comes to retirement income planning specifically, timing is everything, which is why it is important to understand what financial professionals refer to as “sequence risk” or “sequence of returns risk.”

Gone are the days when an employer simply offers a 'one-size-fits-all' benefits package.