When you decide to get a divorce in California, you will need to divide your assets equally with your spouse. Some of these assets can be easy to designate, such as pieces of property and cash. However, one of the more difficult items to divide is your stock options.
How do I protect my stocks in a divorce?
Steps to Protect Assets from Divorce
- Put together all of your financial records for the past three years.
- Make copies of your bank, investment and retirement accounts.
- Set up an offshore trust and international LLC.
- Set up an international bank account in the name of the LLC.
- Establish credit in your own name.
Do you need to know about dividing stock options in divorce?
If your spouse has stock options you certainly want to take the time to explore if any portion of the options are marital property and subject to division. If you do not know whether or not your spouse has options, be sure to obtain complete discovery showing all of his or her employment benefits.
Can a former spouse transfer a stock option?
As you may have noticed, actually dividing the ownership, or transferring the option itself to a former spouse is not mentioned as a potential distribution method. This is because the vast majority of employee stock option plans explicitly prohibit the assignment or transfer of rights in the options.
Do you have to pay taxes on stock transfer in divorce?
Current Taxes Transfer of stocks incident to a divorce are not taxable unless the recipient spouse is a nonresident alien or the transfer is made in trust to secure installment payments. Only stock redemptions for the purpose of paying cash are subject to taxable gain or loss.
Are there stock options in a North Carolina divorce?
Although the vast majority of North Carolina divorces will not involve Silicon Valley stock options, there are many local startups that may have offered stock options as an employment benefit. Getting full disclosure from your former spouse about each employment benefit is immensely important.
