What will happen to my restricted units?
This should all be covered in your stock grant documentation, or the employee stock program of which your grant is a part.   Find those docs and it should specify how or when you can sale your shares, and how the money is paid to you.  Generally, vested shares are yours until you take action.  If instead you have options, then be aware these need to be exercised before they become shares.  There is generally a limited time period on how long you can wait to exercise.  In the US, 10 years is common. Unvested shares will almost certainly expire upon your departure of the company.  Whether your Merrill Lynch account will show this, or show them as never existing, I can't say.  But either way, there is nothing you can or should do.
The most likely explanation is, as you say, that the letter was automatically generated a day or two before you met with your advisor. Assuming that your advisor is competent, they will probably execute the instructions you gave them at the meeting. The letter said you had ten days to change the investment, and your advisor should be able to do it in that time. To be on the safe side, since people have been known to forget things, I would call your advisor and tell them you got the letter, and check they are going to do what you decided. I would then follow it with a polite email, just saying that you both decided at your meeting on such-and-such a date to go with the three month plan. If that doesn't happen you can point to the email as evidence. Don't panic about this. Even though the bank says you are 'locked in' to the decision, if an advisor makes a mistakes these decisions are in fact reversible, with the advisor paying any penalty. There are many different things that can happen, all or some. Taking Russia and Argentina as precedence - you may not be able to withdraw funds from your bank for some period of time. Not because your accounts will be drained, but because the cash supply will be restricted. Similar thing has also happened recently in Cyprus. However, the fact that the governments of Russia and Argentina limited the use of cash for a period of time doesn't mean that the US government will have to do the same, it my choose some other means of restraint. What's for sure is that nothing good will happen. Nothing will probably happen to your balance in the bank (Although Cyprus has shown that that is not a given either). But I'm not so sure about FDIC maintaining it's insurance if the bank fails (meaning if the bank defaults as a result of the chain effect - you may lose your money). If the government is defaulting, it might not have enough cash to take over the bank deposits. After the default the currency value will probably drop sharply (devaluation) which will lead to inflation. Meaning your same balance will be worth much less than it is now. So there's something to worry about for everyone. During mergers they try to create efficiencies.  Typically these efficiencies happen in the office, one HR person instead of two, less secretaries, less middle managers.  The number of maintenance people is normally based off of the number of properties.  You likely will be safe in your position, but no one knows for sure. Were your classes at a community college? If they were, community colleges in california offer a program called Academic Renewal. It generally requires you to do well (above a certain gpa) for x amount of units (24 at my community college). That way you don't have to worry about that difficult year of your life affecting your ability to transfer. Best of luck! 2 things may happen. Either your positions are closed by the broker and the loss or profit is credited to your account. Else it is carried over to the next day and you pay interest on the stocks lent to you. What happens will be decided by the agreement signed between you and your broker. I assume I can/will need to file an 83(b) election, in order to avoid   tax repercussions? What exactly will this save me from? 83(b) election is for restricted stock grants, not for stock purchases. For restricted stocks, you generally pay income tax when they vest. For startups the price difference between the time of the grant and the time of the vesting can be astronomical and by choosing 83(b) you effectively pay income tax on the value of the grant instead of the value of the vest. Then, you only pay capital gains tax on the difference between the sale price and the grant value when you sell. In your case you're exercising an option, i.e.: you're buying a stock, so 83(b) is irrelevant. What you will pay though is the tax on the difference between the strike price and the stock FMV (unless the stocks you end up buying are restricted - which would have been the case if you exercised your options early, but I don't think is going to be the case now). What steps should I take to (in the eyes of the law) guarantee that   the board has received my execution notice? The secretary of the board   is a notorious procrastinator and can be very unorganized. You should read what the grant contract/company policy says on that. Ask the HR/manager. Usually, a certified letter with return receipt should be enough, but you should verify the format, the address, and the timeframe. You can keep your Mutual Funds. You have to communicate your new status to fund house.  The SIP can continue. Please note you have to convert the savings account to NRO account. Most banks would keep the account number same, else you have to revise SIP debit to new NRO account. From a tax point of view, it would be similar to resident status. Right now short term gains are taxed. There are quite a few other things you may need to do. Although dated, this is a good article. PS: Once you become resident alien in US for tax purposes, you are liable for taxes on global income. The question is for your HR department, or administrator of the plan. How long must you hold the employee shares before you are permitted to sell? Loyalty to your company is one thing, but after a time, you will be too heavily invested in one company, and you need to diversify out. One can cite any number they wish, 5%, 10%. All I know is that when Enron blew up, it only added insult to injury that not only did these people lose their job, they lost a huge chunk of their savings as well. Does allowing family to stay at the rental jeopardize my depreciation?  No, accumulated depreciation that hasn't been deducted reduces your basis in the event of sale. That doesn't go anywhere. Accumulating more may not be allowed though. If the property is no longer rental (i.e.: personal use, your family member lives there for free), you cannot claim expenses or depreciation on it. If you still rent it out to your family member, but not at the fair market value, then you can only claim expenses up to the rental income. I.e.: you can only depreciate up to the extent the depreciation (after all the expenses) not being over the income generated. You cannot generate losses in such case, even if disallowed. If you rent to your family member at the market rate (make sure it is properly documented), then the family relationship really doesn't matter. You continue accumulating expenses as usual. I know what you are talking about and this is what students at UC I know usually do in such cases: Talk with the cashier's/registar's office and see if you have been reported to collections. If you had plans to pay via financial aid, this can be a non-issue, but be sure. It's critical to remove your record from collections, if any. Take a loan and find out how the loan will be paid. Most lenders pay the school directly based on what the school bills for the quarter. If you signed up for X units in Fall '10 and plan to take Y units in Winter '12, add X+Y units in your list of courses. Those X units could be anything in your course catalog. Once the school sends out the bill and the lender pays it, drop the X units. This will give you a check and use that to pay out the outstanding amounts. Most schools will include all outstanding amounts in the bill for your current quarter, but I am not sure if your lenders has agreements otherwise. Also, some lenders have agreements in place to send refunds directly to them, but remember, the cashier is king and she can make refunds happen the way she likes, and she is likely to help a student unless you have a bad payment history (collections, bounced checks..) Question: I live in half of a duplex together with other college students. I put my rent (roughly $750 in cash) in the landlord's mailbox while he was out of town for three weeks. I told him ahead that I would do this, but he claims I never did, and he would have asked me not to. Anyway, now he claims the money was not there when he returned and I still owe $750.  Answer: Well, that's tough. It could be that the money was stolen from the mailbox. It could be that the landlord pocketed the money and is trying to scam you. Your problem is that you have no receipt, and no evidence at all that you paid the money. There's little you can do other than paying up (again) and learning from this expensive lesson. All sorts of conditions, yes. Most commonly is a limitation on the exercise date.  The two more common would be American which is exercisable any time, and European which are only exercisable on their expiry date. Sometimes they may be linked to the original asset, and might only be convertible to stock if that original asset is given/sold back to the company.  (Effectively perhaps making the bond convertible to stock). Lots more details on the Pedia, but in short, basically you need to read the warrant contract individually, as each will differ. Would anything happen if you bring this issue to the attention of the HR department? Everyone in the company who participates in the 401(k) is affected, so you'd think they'd all be interested in switching to a another 401k provider that will make them more money. "A quick online search for ""disadvantages of defence housing australia investment properties"" turns up a several articles that list a few possible disadvantages. I can't vouch for these personally because I'm not familiar with the Australian rental market, but they may all be things to keep in mind. I quote verbatim where indicated." "they are entirely free to do whatever they want with the shares. In particular, they can sell them to whomever they choose No. Restrictions on who can sell when and to whom are a common thing with startups. ""Publicly traded"" companies are regulated in a much stricter way than private companies, so until the IPO the sales are limited to the OTC markets. But even that can be restricted by bylaws - for example ownership can only be limited to a group of investors approved by the board. As an employee - your grant was approved by the board, but when you come to sell, the buyer was not and the company may not agree to vet them. Bottom line is that it is not illegal to impose all kinds of restrictions on what the employees can do with their shares, as long as the shares are not listed on a public stock exchange (even after the company goes IPO with one class, other classes may remain restricted)."