How Are Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) Treated in a Divorce?

00:00:00
Your spouse works at a major publicly traded company, and you're going through a divorce. And somewhere in their compensation package are what are called Restricted Stock Units, or RSUs. These are awards of shares of company stock that haven't even vested yet. Are you supposed to receive stock when they vest? Are they considered income? Are they both? And how much are we actually talking about here? Stick around because by the end of this episode, you're going to understand this better than most attorneys.

00:00:57
Welcome back to Retired-ish. I'm your host, Cameron Valadez, CFP, and enrolled agent. And today we are going deep on a topic that comes up frequently in divorces that involve a spouse who works for one of the major publicly traded companies, and there's quite a few of them. And that is Restricted Stock Units, aka RSUs. And we're going to go over how they are treated in a divorce.

00:01:22
I know this might sound quite niche, but I promise you, if you or someone you know is going through a divorce and one spouse works as maybe an executive or holds a management position in tech, big pharma, energy, finance, really any major industry at one of these publicly traded companies, there's a very good chance that RSUs are sitting on the table. And there's an equally good chance that one or both parties in the divorce don't fully understand what they are, what they're worth, and especially how they're divided if a divorce comes into play. Today, we're going to fix that. We're going to break down what RSUs are, how they are characterized as either community property or separate property in states like California, how they're divided, and why they can also affect spousal support and even child support calculations.

00:02:17
You might be thinking, "Hey, this is for my attorneys to figure out. Why do I need to learn all this?" Well, what I'll tell you right now is that, unless they specialize in this area, which there are not many, most of the professionals out there are unfamiliar with the nuances of splitting Restricted Stock Units in a divorce. So I think it's still prudent for you to have at least a basic understanding of what the process might look like and what it entails.

00:02:44
Starting at the beginning, what exactly is a Restricted Stock Unit? An RSU is a form of equity compensation, meaning it's part of your pay, but instead of cash, you're being given a promise of company stock, in other words, equity in the company. Your employer grants you a certain number of units, and those units are essentially a promise to deliver actual shares of company stock to you in the future, once certain conditions are met. The most common condition is simply time. You have to stay at the company and wait for those units to vest before you actually own anything.

00:03:24
Once they vest, the fair market value of those shares at that moment is treated as ordinary income, so it's part of your wages. The value of the now vested shares is taxed in the year they vest, and they show up on your W-2, or your spouse's W-2, if they're the ones that are receiving the awards. And that shows up just like a salary or a bonus would, essentially. After you receive the shares, if you hold them and later sell for more than what they were worth at vesting, you'll have either a short or long-term capital gain. If you sell them right away, right after they vest, there's generally very little gain or loss since your cost basis is the value at vesting.

00:04:10
I want to reiterate part of that since it's so important to understand. You are taxed when RSUs vest, and then you own the actual shares of stock in the company. This is opposed to what you're probably used to knowing or hearing about, which is being taxed only when you sell shares of stock. One important thing about RSUs versus other types of equity compensation, such as stock options, and I'll touch even more on this in a second, is that RSUs always have value as long as the company stock is worth something. You're getting actual shares.

00:04:49
With stock options, you have the right to buy shares at a fixed price, oftentimes called the strike price or exercise price. And if the stock price drops below that level, your options are completely underwater and can be worthless. So RSUs can't go to zero unless the company essentially goes bankrupt.

00:05:14
Here's something that may surprise you. RSUs have almost completely replaced stock options as the dominant form of equity compensation at major public companies. According to research published by Candor, RSUs are now the most common form of equity compensation, used by 97% of public companies that offer executives equity-based incentives. According to Pearl Meyer's 2025 Executive Compensation Analysis of the first 100 S&P 500 company proxy filers, time-based RSUs now account for 24% of total long-term incentive vehicles, while stock options have dropped to just 16%. Performance-based equity, which often also takes the form of RSUs that are tied to performance metrics, represents 60% of the total. When you combine performance-based RSUs and straight time-based RSUs, you're looking at equity compensation that is overwhelmingly RSU-driven at these large publicly traded companies.

00:06:23
That shift happened for a few reasons. After the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, companies whose stocks dropped realized their employees' stock options were suddenly worthless. They were underwater and weren't serving their purpose as retention tools anymore. RSUs, on the other hand, always retain some value as long as the company essentially survives, again, as long as it has any value. They also have more straightforward accounting treatment. So the corporate world largely made the switch, and it stuck.

00:06:55
Before we go any further, let me quickly walk through how the concept of vesting works, because you need to understand this before we get into the weeds a bit more on how RSUs can be treated in a divorce situation. So when a company grants you, or your spouse, in this case, RSUs, you don't receive the shares immediately, like we mentioned before. They vest over time according to a schedule spelled out in the grant agreement that you get. Here's a common and straightforward example. You're awarded 100 RSUs, and they vest 25% per year over four years. So on each anniversary of the grant date, you receive 25 shares. Pretty simple.

00:07:38
But vesting schedules actually vary a lot by company and by plan. Some vest quarterly, so for our example, that would be 6.25% of the shares vest every three months over the four years. Some vest semi-annually, some monthly, some have cliff vesting, where you essentially get nothing until a specific date, and then the full grant might vest all at once. And then there are performance-based RSUs, and you can call them PRSUs for short, where the number of shares that actually vest depends on hitting certain performance metrics. The vesting schedule matters enormously in divorce because it determines how much of the vesting period happened during the marriage versus after what we call the date of separation. And that ratio is at the heart of every characterization method we are going to discuss here shortly. And by the way, the moment that RSUs vest, you can choose to hold the shares or sell them immediately. Selling right at vesting locks in the value and can help eliminate maybe concentration risk in the stock if, say, you already own a ton of it. Holding them is essentially making a bet that the company stock will continue to appreciate. However, many people will sell some or all of their RSUs right away because they want to spend the money, right? Or they want to diversify a little bit. So to each his own, depends on your goals and your situation.

00:09:11
Who typically offers RSUs? When it comes to the kinds of companies, it's pretty much the who's who of corporate America. In the divorce cases I've seen that involve Restricted Stock Units, they're almost entirely in California since California is the home to Silicon Valley and a lot of other big tech companies that tend to offer Restricted Stock Units. We commonly see companies like Sempra Energy, Tesla, Alphabet, which is Google, Meta, which used to be Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon's a big one, Nvidia, Uber, Netflix, and a whole host of pharmaceutical companies. I think the latest one we dealt with was NeuroCrin Biosciences. So the list goes on and on. There's tons of companies that offer them and tons of up-and-coming companies that are beginning to offer them, so they're very common.

00:09:58
However, the plan administration side, which are the companies that actually track your equity compensation awards, when they were granted, when they vest, all that kind of stuff, is handled only through a few brokerage platforms as of today. You'll commonly see E-Trade, which is now part of Morgan Stanley, and Merrill is another one. And more recently, plans are being administered through Charles Schwab and OpenArk. The platform matters in divorce because when you go to divide the assets, you need to know where the shares are actually held and who's administering them, so that you can get the correct information, the statements, that kind of stuff that you and your attorney will need to know.

00:10:48
And speaking of statements and important information, the person in the divorce who is receiving RSUs, so I'll just refer to them as the employee, knows exactly what they have. These typically aren't small dollar amounts. So the employee knows how many shares they've been granted, they know their vesting schedule, they know what their grants are currently worth. This is not a case where someone accidentally forgot that they had stock compensation. RSUs are a major, major part of compensation packages for executives and other senior employees, and they are fully disclosed in employment agreements, grant notices, and on the employee's pay stubs every time a batch of the RSUs vests. So if there are RSUs in a divorce and the employee spouse is playing dumb, that's a red flag.

00:11:42
Okay, so let's get into the meat of this. How do you actually divide RSUs in a divorce? How does all this work? The mechanism used to actually split these RSUs in a divorce is typically a domestic relations order, or a DRO. In some cases, there's qualified domestic relations orders used, known as QDROs. If you've heard of a quadro before, it's probably because it's the same type of court order used to divide things like 401(k) assets between divorcing spouses. Anytime there's a plan that's governed by ERISA, that's usually when a quadro is required. With RSUs and other equity compensation, the terminology can vary a bit by plan. Some call it a DRO, and some call it a QUDRO. But the concept is the same. It's a court-issued order that directs the company to transfer a portion of the equity award to the non-employee spouse. Important to know, the employee's spouse, the one receiving the awards, cannot just voluntarily hand shares over to their ex. There needs to be a proper domestic relations order that the company and its plan administrator will honor. And every equity plan has its own rules about how it handles DRO’s, so you need to make sure your legal team reviews the specific plan documents.

00:13:07
This next part is where a lot of people get turned around, and I want to spend some time here because getting this wrong has real financial consequences. The big question in divorce when Restricted Stock Units are involved is, are RSUs income or are they an asset? The honest answer is, they can be both, and that depends entirely on the context. Of course, everything in finance and in tax depends, right? When RSUs vest, they show up on the employee's W-2, and even before that, on their pay stub, as wage income to be taxed. But then you also receive actual shares of stock that are worth something, which is actually an asset. This is unless the employee decides to sell the shares immediately. Then they will receive cash instead of the stock. Essentially, the employer can sell the stock and withhold the taxes, and they get cash. If you pull a spouse's prior year tax returns or pay stubs during discovery, you will see RSU income on there if they had vesting RSUs. And that makes them look like income.

00:14:22
But in the context of dividing marital property, they are characterized as an asset, specifically a property interest that may be community property if you're in a community property state like California, or separate property, depending on when they were granted and when they vest relative to the date of separation. Where it gets a little more complicated is the concept of income available for support. In California, for instance, and many other states follow this similar logic, income from all sources can be considered when calculating child support and spousal support. So RSUs that vest, even ones that were classified as the employee spouse's separate property and were not divided as community property, can potentially still count as income that's available for support purposes when those shares vest and show up on a W-2. Kind of crazy, I know. You could have a situation where part of an RSU grant is deemed to be the employee's separate property, and therefore, the spouse theoretically would get nothing from dividing those shares as an asset. But then, when those shares vest later and hit the employee's W-2 as income, that income can factor into his or her support obligations. So this is a critical distinction that a lot of people, and professionals included, miss.

00:15:53
Understandably, a lot of non-employee spouses, so when I say that, I mean the spouse that is not the one getting awarded RSUs from their employer, get nervous about RSUs that haven't vested yet when the couple separates. And rightfully so. But here's the deal. Unvested RSUs at the date of separation are not ignored. They still need to be characterized, and they can still be divided to an extent.

00:16:24
What this means practically is that even if the RSUs haven't vested yet, again, as of the date of separation, meaning the employee spouse doesn't actually own the shares outright yet, the community or marital interest versus any potential separate property interest in those shares can still be figured out, so to speak. Then, when the RSUs eventually vest after the separation, the employee's spouse can transfer the non-employee spouse's portion of any community shares to them at that time if necessary. And this is important to understand when you're negotiating a settlement, for example. Future vesting events are not off the table just because the divorce is finalized. You should, or your attorney should, address them in the settlement agreement regarding whether or not certain portions of certain grants are supposed to be transferred and how they are to be transferred to the non-employee spouse later on, after they vest.

00:17:27
Okay, so now that you understand the differences between RSUs being divided as an asset or as property versus income available for support, let's look at how to determine how much is able to be divided as community property and what is separate property. In other words, how do we figure out who gets what? Well, part of it's easy. RSUs that end up vesting prior to the date of separation of the spouses are typically going to be 100% community property. Those that are granted or awarded after the date of separation are typically going to be separate property of the employee spouse that's earning them.
00:18:06
However, here's the fundamental problem with RSUs in a divorce. They almost always span the date of separation. So commonly, an RSU grant made during the marriage might not fully vest until years after the couple separates. So you've got a single grant that has both a community property component in community property states, of course, which is the portion that covers the time during the marriage, and then you've got a separate property component, which is the portion covering time after the separation. And how much goes to each spouse in these cases depends heavily on why the RSU was granted in the first place. Was it granted as compensation for past services that were already rendered, like an annual performance bonus paid in stock, or was it granted as an incentive for future services, so like a retention tool designed to keep the employee at the company? Or, commonly, could it be both?

00:19:12
Courts have landed on different answers to this question depending on the jurisdiction and the facts. In what we call equitable distribution states, which are almost all of the states other than the community property states, courts will sometimes use a grant-date-based approach. If the RSU was granted during the marriage, it could be 100% marital property. If it was granted after the date of separation, it's 100% separate. Or, alternatively, if it was fully vested before the date of separation, it's 100% marital, yada yada. Even then, many of them might layer on some form of coverture fraction or purpose analysis for the grants. Again, why was the grant made? What was the intent? So other courts focus heavily on the intent of the grant. When was the compensation actually earned, rather than applying a mechanical formula?

00:20:08
And then there's California, which, again, is home to Silicon Valley and more RSU-heavy divorces than anywhere else in the country. California courts have developed essentially a set of rule-of-thumb formulas from prior case law to handle this with more nuance. And since California and the neighboring community property states are the most common, let's walk through some of these formulas or frameworks.

00:20:32
So in California, you typically see a few of these used. And these are not mandatory formulas to use. They're, again, frameworks that courts and practitioners use as guidelines. Different courts can apply them differently, but they form the backbone of how RSU characterization is handled in California and in many other states that have adopted similar approaches.

00:20:56
And the first one, we just call the time rule. It's a coverture fraction. The time rule is the general purpose framework and the backbone of the more specific formulas that follow. It's not tied to a single case. It's a broadly applied equitable principle used in both community property and equitable distribution states. And the formula is in order to come up with how much or how many of these RSUs are part of the community property. And the formula is basically the date of separation minus the date of the grant divided by the date of vesting minus the date of grant. And then you multiply that fraction by the number of shares, or the current market value if you need a dollar figure, to arrive at what the community property share is.

00:21:49
And the logic here is pretty straightforward. Look at how much of the vesting period happened during the marriage and attribute that slice to the community, which would be both spouses. Clean and simple. But it presupposes that the entire grant was prospective, meaning it was compensation for future services. And that's not always accurate. And that's where the next two formulas come in.

00:22:14
The next one is called the Nelson formula. The name comes from prior case law. Nelson applies, or should apply, when RSUs were granted primarily as compensation for future performance and as an incentive to stay with the company. So, like a retention tool. The company is essentially saying, "Hey, stay for X more years, and you'll earn these shares." Post-date-of-separation years of service would therefore generate the employee's separate property. And the formula is the date of grant minus the date of separation divided by the date of grant minus the date of vesting. And you multiply that by the number of RSUs, and that's how you get the amount of community property RSUs. Or, again, you can multiply it by the fair market value of those RSUs on that date if you want the actual dollar figure.

00:23:13
The Nelson formula anchors to the grant date because the grant represents the starting point of the future performance window. The community share is the portion of that window that fell inside the marriage. So, as an example, there could be 400 RSUs granted on April 15th of 2022 as a retention incentive. Let's say the date of separation is February 1st, 2025, and the vesting date is December 31st, 2026. Using the Nelson formula, that would give us roughly 61% community property, which would be 244 shares out of the 400, then the rest would be separate property. But remember what we talked about previously? The value of those remaining separate property shares might still be on the table as income available for support.

00:24:10
So, what are some good rules of thumb or things to look for that would indicate that the Nelson formula might be the better formula to use? Well, you want to look for things like any grant documentation, employment agreements, or plan documents that might indicate the award was designed to retain the employee and incentivize future performance. Annual review grants that are explicitly forward-looking.

00:24:37
All right, next, let's look at the HUG formula. Again, the name comes from prior case law. HUG essentially takes the opposite approach. It applies when RSUs were granted either as a reward for past services that were already rendered or to recruit an employee to a job or position. So think signing bonuses paid in stock or grants that were clearly compensation for work that was already done.
00:25:08
And the formula for this one is the date of hire minus the date of separation divided by the date of hire minus the date of vesting. And then you take that, and you multiply it, again, by the number of RSUs or the fair market value of the RSUs, and that gives you that community property interest in the RSUs. You'll notice that the formulas are very similar, but HUG anchors to the date of hire rather than the date of the grant. And by reaching back to when the employment relationship began, you're capturing more of the accrual period in the community's favor, which makes sense when the grant was tied to hiring or past services. Therefore, HUG typically produces a higher community property fraction than Nelson, which is generally better for the non-employee party to the divorce. However, the difference is usually fairly small.

00:26:08
For example, an employee hired on March 1st, 2022, again, 400 RSUs granted, we'll use the same dates, April 15th, 2022, as part of the hiring package. Again, date of separation, February 1st, 2025, and let's say they vest on December 31st, 2026. The HUG fraction gives us roughly 62% community property, or 248 shares out of the 400, which, if you'll remember, is slightly more than if the Nelson formula were to be used.

00:26:43
So, again, what are some good rules of thumb or things to look for that would indicate that the HUG formula might be the better formula? Well, you want to look for things like offer letters, again, employment agreements, or grant documentation that shows the RSUs were part of the hiring package or a reward for prior performance. If the grant date closely follows the hire date, or if plan documents reference a look-back performance period, HUG is probably the better framework to use.

00:27:18
Oh, and one more very important thing I want to mention. You should look at the nature of each individual grant to determine what formula might best apply. You can use multiple formulas when there are multiple grants that might have been awarded for different purposes. So keep that in mind, and I'll revisit that later.

00:27:39
Okay, now that we have a good understanding of the formulas that are commonly used to identify RSU community versus separate property, at least in California, let's look at the separate property that may be treated as income available for support. And this is where a tool, commonly called the Smith-Osler formula, or Osler-Smith formula, it's actually a chart, that's where this comes in, and it's commonly used, again, in California.

00:28:09
And here's the problem it solves. Bonuses and equity compensation, like RSUs, are like a roller coaster. Some years you get them, some years you don't, and even if you are consistently awarded RSUs, the amounts can vary dramatically depending on how the company's stock price performs and what it is when it vests, or when your RSUs vests, and how many shares were granted to begin with. So building a fixed support obligation, like spousal or child support, around that variable income is a nightmare.

00:28:44
So this thing called the Smith-Osler chart solves this by setting a percentage of future bonuses or equity compensation over and above the base salary that's already factored into the support calculation by your attorney that is supposed to be paid as additional support when those bonuses or RSU vesting events occur. So rather than fighting about it every year, you set a formula up front. When the RSUs vest and the employee receives income, a predetermined percentage of that goes to the non-employee spouse on top of whatever base support was already established.

00:29:22
This is particularly relevant for any RSUs that were classified as the employee's separate property, which are the shares he or she doesn't have to divide as an asset, but that still generate taxable income when they vest. And again, it's not going to be all of the separate property, but it could be some of it. And this is just going to depend on your situation. The Smith-Osler mechanism captures that income stream for support purposes without requiring a new court order every time some RSUs vest. That's the power of it.

00:30:01
Okay, so let's put all of this together with a practical example. And I'm going to walk you through Jim and Rachel Johnson's situation. I just made that up right now. So no offense if those are your names. Jim was hired by his employer in California on March 1st, 2023. Almost immediately, on April 30th, 2023, he was granted 500 RSUs as part of his hiring package. Jim and Rachel separate on February 14th, 2025. You see what I did there? Those 500 RSUs are scheduled to vest on September 15th, 2025, which is after the date of separation, which again was on February 14th, 2025.

00:30:48
Because this grant was made as part of Jim's hiring package, it was essentially part of his offer letter, a way to attract him to the job, so we're going to use the HUG formula for that grant. The grant was compensation tied to bringing Jim on board, not a forward-looking retention incentive. So under the HUG formula, which again is date of hire minus date of separation divided by date of hire minus date of vesting times the number of RSUs, that gets us our community property portion. So we've got March 1st, 2023, minus February 14th, 2025, divided by March 1st, 2023, minus September 15th, 2025, times 500. And I'll just do the math for you. It's approximately 77% community property. And that means that about 385 of the 500 shares are community property, and the remaining 115 shares are Jim's separate property.

00:31:51
We should also account for taxes here. Jim is in California, so we're going to use an assumed tax rate of 45%, which would essentially capture his federal and state income taxes, well, not just for him, but for him and Rachel. And after taxes, you're left with approximately 275 community property shares. Rachel's half of that is 138 shares, so under this example, Rachel walks away with about 138 shares of Jim's company stock.

00:32:22
Now, here's the part that trips people up. What about the other 115 shares, the ones that were deemed his separate property? Those 115 separate property shares vest on September 15th, 2025. They show up as income on Jim's pay stub and on his 2025 W-2. Even though they weren't split as community property, they can be counted as income available for the calculation of child and/or spousal support. And by the way, the income that will be recognized when those 115 shares vest is not reduced by the assumed tax rate before calculating any support like we did for the community property shares.

00:33:12
And this example is exactly the kind of situation where the Smith-Osler framework comes in. You'd use that with the help of your attorney to determine what percentage of Jim's separate property RSU income is allocable to Rachel as additional child and/or spousal support on top of whatever was calculated for his base salary.

All right, so let me close out with some practical things that matter when you're actually working through something like this.

00:33:43
Usually, I know you'll be working with a professional. This stuff can get really complicated, but either way, it's going to literally pay for you to understand this. Number one, before you can even think about which formula to use, you need to do your homework on the paperwork. Specifically, you want to try and get your hands on three things, and those are the equity plan document, it can go by many names, the grant notice, and the vesting schedule.

00:34:12
The equity plan document, let's call it, is the master rulebook the company uses for all of its stock awards. In our example, the grant notice is the specific document that Jim received when he was handed those 500 shares. And it told us exactly when the grant was made, how many shares, and what the vesting schedule looked like. And the vesting schedule tells you the timeline, when those shares actually land.

00:34:38
But here's the most important document most people overlook, and that is the company's proxy statement. Specifically, a section inside of it called the CDNA, the Compensation Discussion and Analysis, is the important part. Public companies are required to file this every year. It's where the company literally explains, in plain English, why it pays its executives and employees the way that it does.

00:35:07
Was this stock grant a reward for hitting last year's targets, or was it designed to keep this person from jumping ship? The CDNA often tells you this directly. And that distinction, past performance versus future retention, is exactly what can help determine whether your attorney or mediator should be using something like the HUG or Nelson formula, possibly in a state like California.

00:35:32
And the second thing is model each grant separately, or have your team model each separately. A senior executive might have six to eight overlapping RSU grant years, and each tranche is going to get its own characterization fraction or formula. You may be able to apply the Nelson formula to one grant and then the HUG formula to another grant if they were awarded for different reasons.

00:35:58
Number three, don't forget about PRSUs, so those performance-based RSUs. Those add a layer of uncertainty because the number of shares that will actually vest isn't usually known until the performance period closes. So courts may handle this by using the target award, waiting until settlement, or applying some sort of probability discount. So this needs to be addressed explicitly in your settlement agreement.

00:36:27
Number four, tax gross-up is often overlooked. When RSUs vest, the employer typically withholds at what we call the supplemental income rate, which is 22%. But if you're a high-income earner, which you probably are if RSUs are a significant part of your compensation, you're almost certainly going to owe more than 22% in federal taxes. So the non-employee spouse receiving shares via a DRO is also going to have a tax consequence that, again, needs to be addressed in the settlement. And the tax math matters a lot.

00:37:08
Number five, review annually if vesting extends past the divorce. If there are RSUs that vest after the date of separation and the divorce itself, but are part of the settlement agreement, make sure you're reviewing those annually to confirm that you're actually receiving the right amount. If you're working with someone like a financial advisor who has experience with equity compensation, they can probably help you track this and make sure everything aligns with what was agreed to. That is something my firm, Planable Wealth, does for our clients in these situations.

00:37:43
Number six, proper characterization actually benefits both parties. This is one for the employee spouse, so if you're the one earning the restricted stock units. You might be thinking initially, "Whoa, I hope my ex doesn't figure all this stuff out." But here's the thing. When the other side, let's call them, is working with someone who actually understands RSUs or other equity compensation and divorce, they're also going to make sure that there's no double-dipping.
00:38:16
A competent advisor on the other side will ensure that any RSUs properly transferred as, let's say, community property are not also counted as your income when calculating any support obligations. That's actually in your best interest. You don't want to get hit twice on the same shares. And if people don't know what they're doing, that can very easily happen because this stuff is pretty confusing.

00:38:43
Look, in a lot of divorce cases, dividing RSUs doesn't really happen in a vacuum. It becomes part of a broader settlement negotiation. For example, spouses might agree to offset some or all of the equity compensation from RSUs with other assets, like home equity or other property, retirement accounts, or some sort of other investments, like stocks and bonds.

00:39:09
Nobody's situation is identical, and what makes sense structurally and tax-efficient for one couple may not make sense for another. RSUs often require a team who understands the legal characterization framework, someone who understands the tax implications, and someone who can model the numbers correctly for the individual grants. If you're going through this and your team doesn't have that expertise, you need to find people who do. The stakes are too high to wing it.

00:39:41
Oftentimes, you may have an attorney or a mediator that you like, and they will suggest that you add a financial professional to the team, rather than the attorney or mediator also trying to figure this out and do it themselves. And that way, you can have that financial professional provide an RSU community property analysis and some sort of report that you and your attorney or mediator can work off of.

00:40:07
That does it for this episode. As always, if this was helpful, please follow the podcast and share it with someone you know who may benefit. Be sure to check out and subscribe to the Retired-ish newsletter to get more useful information on retirement planning, investments, and taxes once a month straight to your inbox.

00:40:24
The newsletter often dives deeper into some of the topics discussed on the show, as well as provides useful guides and charts available for download. If you're in a divorce situation, an equity compensation, such as restricted stock units, may be involved, feel free to reach out to my firm, Planable Wealth, for a free consultation.

00:40:43
There will be a link in the show notes right there on your podcast app, or you can head over to retiredishpodcast.com/91, and it will all be available there as well. Once again, I am Cameron Valadez, Certified Financial Planner and enrolled agent. Thanks for tuning in and following along. See you next time on Retired-ish.

00:41:25 Disclosures
Cameron Valadez is a registered representative with, and securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC. The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. This information is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax or legal advice. We suggest that you discuss your specific tax issues with a qualified tax or legal advisor. Tax and accounting-related services offered through Plan-It Business Services DBA Planable Wealth. Plan-It Business Services is a separate legal entity and not affiliated with LPL Financial. LPL Financial does not offer tax advice or tax and accounting-related services.