Corporate executives

When a highly-placed corporate executive goes through a divorce, some of his or her employment-related perquisites have implications for calculating income to determine alimony or child support payments. Others fit within the equitable distribution issues of a divorce.

Feldesman Tucker’s attorneys have in-depth experience handling the full range of executive perquisites. We are adept at carefully reading and digesting the various agreements that set forth the terms of the perquisites, and we have a sophisticated understanding of the relevance of such perquisites to support and asset-division issues. This expertise ensures that the client’s goals and expectations will actually be realized at the end of the day.

In addition to commonly provided qualified retirement benefits such as 40l(k) plans, perquisites may include:

Awards of stock options
Restricted stock and/or performance units
Non-qualified retirement plans such as “top-hat” plans
Expense accounts
Use of a company car
Life insurance premiums
Relocation benefits
Bonuses
Severance packages

To understand the characteristics and limitations of particular benefits, we conduct a detailed analysis to derive a full and accurate understanding of the nature of the executive’s perquisites and how they should be regarded. Questions that guide us include:

What is the vesting schedule for stock options?
What is the period of time within which options must be exercised?
What are the tax consequences of exercising options within a particular year?
Can the options be transferred to the non-employee spouse, and if so, under what conditions?
How much does the executive’s bonus fluctuate from year to year and what factors is the bonus based on?
What impact will the divorce have on the various elements of the relocation package?

Our extensive experience and sophistication enables our attorneys to deliver tailored, top-qualify representation to the divorcing corporate executive.