Leaving Nike - A financial checklist for severance, equity awards, benefits, and your 401(k)

Leaving Nike can cause several financial decisions to arrive at once. The first objective is not to act quickly; it is to identify the deadlines, elections, and transactions that could permanently change your benefits, equity, taxes, or retirement options.

Preserve your records: Before access ends, download current pay statements, benefit elections, equity grant documents, vesting schedules, ESPP records, deferred-compensation elections, and your Fidelity 401(k) statement.

Map every deadline: Confirm the official separation date, final payroll, health-coverage end date, severance terms, equity vesting and option exercise windows, and any deferred-compensation payment schedule.

PAUSE BEFORE MOVING THE 401(k): Review vested balances, outstanding loans, Roth and after-tax sources, and Nike Stock Fund cost basis before requesting a rollover or selling company stock inside the plan.

Begin with the documents that control. Nike equity awards can include traditional RSUs, Performance RSUs, PSUs, and stock options, but separation and retirement treatment can differ by grant. Obtain written confirmation of vesting, forfeiture, and exercise terms before relying on an expected value.

For the Nike 401(k), a former employee may generally leave a vested balance above $1,000 in the plan, request a lump-sum distribution, complete a direct rollover to a new employer's retirement plan if one is available and accepts rollovers, or complete a direct rollover to an IRA. If the account contains appreciated Nike shares, complete a net unrealized appreciation (NUA) analysis before initiating a rollover or selling the shares inside the plan. Compare COBRA with available alternatives; COBRA generally provides a 60-day election window, but the plan notice controls. Also map severance and any deferred-compensation payments into the tax year.

Planning principle: Preserve every available option until you understand which decisions are irreversible.

What ends—and when? Confirm payroll, medical, life, disability, HSA/FSA, ESPP, and system-access dates.

What equity changes? Separate vested from unvested awards and document each grant’s forfeiture, retirement, and exercise rules.

What should remain in the plan? Compare leaving assets, a rollover, and—if Nike stock is held—an in-kind NUA strategy before initiating transactions.

What arrives in the same tax year? Coordinate severance, equity income, option exercises, deferred-compensation distributions, and retirement-plan transactions before estimating taxes.