Grants that straddle the filing date
RSUs that vested during the marriage are usually treated like any other marital asset, whether they are still held as shares or were sold. Units that remain unvested when the divorce action begins are harder, because they may have been granted to reward past work, to encourage future work, or both. New York courts often look at the purpose of the grant and use a time-based fraction to separate the marital portion from the portion earned after the case began. Refresh grants, sign-on grants, and performance-based units can each lead to a different answer. The grant agreements and the company's equity plan usually show what the units were meant to reward, so they sit at the center of the analysis.
Records from the equity portal
Most of what matters lives in the employer's stock plan account: grant dates, vesting schedules, shares withheld for taxes at vesting, and any sales. If you are the employee, download the vesting history and grant agreements, and keep brokerage statements showing where vested shares went. If you are not, your lawyer can request these records through discovery rather than you logging into an account that is not yours. Watch for released shares moved to another brokerage account or proceeds used for a purchase, because those are traced rather than ignored. Tax withholding at vesting often means fewer shares are delivered than were granted, which changes the number being divided.
Dividing what cannot be transferred
Unvested RSUs usually cannot be transferred to a former spouse, so settlements often divide them as they vest, with the employee holding the other spouse's share and delivering shares or after-tax proceeds. Another approach is to value the units now and offset them with other assets, which ends the tie sooner but shifts the risk of a stock price change to one side. Vesting income also feeds into support calculations, so the same units can be counted twice if the property and income discussions are not coordinated. We begin by going through each grant, discuss which division method suits your circumstances, and identify wording that handles taxes, forfeiture, and job changes. If the employee spouse may leave the company, say so early, because departure can cancel unvested units.
