Practice Area · Executives
Executive compensation in divorce.
An executive's balance sheet is mostly promises: bonuses not yet paid, awards not yet vested, deferred compensation not yet distributable. Divorce forces one question onto all of it — is this property to divide, or income to share? The answer is worth arguing about.
Property or Income
The most consequential line in the case.
Compensation earned during the marriage is generally marital even if paid later; awards granted for purely future services may remain separate until an enforceable right exists — and most executive packages sit somewhere between, part reward for the past and part retention for the future. Colorado allocates the marital share of unvested awards by their purpose and timing, which is why reading what each award was actually granted for is where the analysis starts. Getting the grant documents and reading what each award was for is where this analysis actually starts — and it's the step most divisions skip.
The same dollars can't be both: an award counted as property in the division shouldn't also be counted as income for support. Policing that line — the executive's version of the double-dip — is a recurring high-stakes issue.
The Practical Layer
Plans have rules; orders must respect them.
Deferred comp plans, LTIPs, and severance arrangements come with their own governing documents — distribution schedules, forfeiture and clawback provisions, transfer restrictions, and for public-company insiders, trading-window realities. A settlement that ignores the plan documents produces orders the plan administrator can't honor. I draft divisions that work inside the plans as written: if-as-when payment structures, tax gross-up terms, and security for the promises — because in this corner of divorce law, the drafting is the outcome.
Common Questions
What executives ask between meetings.
My bonus gets paid in March for last year's work. Is it marital?
If it was earned during the marriage, its later payment date doesn't change its character — the earning period controls, not the payroll calendar. The messier questions come with multi-year awards, and those turn on the grant terms.
My unvested awards might be worth nothing. How can they be divided?
Through structures that share the risk: if-as-when divisions that pay the former spouse only when and if you actually receive value, in the marital proportion. You shouldn't buy out uncertainty at a certain price.
Will my company get involved in my divorce?
Minimally, if it's handled well. Plan documents get produced, and occasionally a plan administrator confirms mechanics — but a properly drafted order works within the plan's rules, which is exactly what keeps your employer at arm's length from your case.
The rest of this chapter.
Closely held businesses, professional practices, executive and equity compensation, trusts, real estate, and the tracing that decides what is marital and what is not.
- Business Valuationthe number that decides the case→
- High-Asset Divorcecomplex estates, disclosure, and the five-year rule→
- Business Owner Divorcekeeping the company you built→
- Complex Financial Divorcevalue, characterize, tax-effect — then divide→
- Property Divisionequitable, not automatic 50/50→
- Separate Propertya records-management discipline→
- Spousal Maintenancethe formula, published with a worked example→
- Executive Compensationproperty or income — the line worth arguingYou are here
- Stock Options & RSUstax character changes real value→
- Trust Intereststhe instrument, not the balance, decides→
- Real Estatevalue, equity, and after-tax proceeds differ→
- Retirement AssetsQDROs, and three different currencies→
- Professional Practicesgoodwill, licensure, and buyouts→
- Tax Strategythe settlement that matters is the after-tax one→
- Hidden Assets & Forensic Discoverythe disclosure duty, and the five-year hammer→
- Cryptocurrency & Digital Assetsfindable, valuable, divisible→
- Married to the Business Ownerleveling the information field→
- Income Determinationwhat “income” means when you own the company→
Engagement
Bring the grant documents. The answers are written in them.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.