Can a Prenup Protect Your Stock Options and RSUs?

Can a Prenup Protect Your Stock Options and RSUs?

Yes. A prenup can decide how your stock options and restricted stock units get handled if the marriage ends, as long as the numbers are fully disclosed and the agreement is built with care. More couples are writing exactly those terms right now. The Los Angeles Times reported this week on a prenup surge among younger couples, and Law.com described agreements moving past the standard template to handle complex pay like equity grants and vesting schedules.

This is for people whose paycheck is only part of the story. If a real chunk of what you earn arrives as RSUs, options, or a pre-IPO stake, here’s how a prenup treats that equity, and where it falls apart.

What is a prenup?

A prenuptial agreement is a contract two people sign before the wedding that decides, in advance, how money and property get handled if they split up or one of them dies. It can say what stays separate, what becomes shared, and whether one spouse supports the other. What it cannot do is lock in child custody or child support. The court retains total authority over those issues, no matter what the contract says.

One thing to know going in: prenups are creatures of state law. Every state enforces them, but each one writes its own rules for what makes an agreement valid, or potentially invalid.

Can a prenup really cover stock options and RSUs?

Yes, and for a lot of executives and startup employees, equity is the whole reason to sign one.

A grant of stock you receive before the wedding can keep vesting for years into the marriage, which blurs the line between what’s yours and what’s shared. A prenup can draw that line on purpose: which grants stay separate, how a grant that straddles the wedding date gets split, and who carries the tax hit when the shares finally vest. As Forbes reported in July 2026, that last part trips people up: without a plan, one spouse can walk away with a pre-tax share while the other holds the tax bill.

The agreement is only as good as the paperwork behind it. Lawyers who do this right attach the grant agreements and vesting schedules as exhibits, so there is a clear record of what existed and when. Future grants get addressed as well, because the company isn’t necessarily done granting you equity the day you marry.

Picture a couple getting married next spring. Say she’s a VP of engineering at a fast-growing company, sitting on options granted two years ago that vest over the next four. He’s a physician with his own practice. Without a prenup, those options keep vesting through the marriage, and if they split in year three, a court has to untangle how much of that equity the

marriage can claim. A prenup lets them settle that now, upfront, instead of fighting over a spreadsheet through two sets of lawyers later.

Does the answer change by state?

Yes, and by more than most people expect.

Two separate things move from state to state here. First, whether the prenup itself stands up: states differ on what counts as full financial disclosure, how long before the wedding you have to sign, whether each spouse needs their own lawyer, and how far a court will go to toss a term it reads as lopsided. Second, how equity gets divided when there’s no prenup, or when a term doesn’t survive. Some states measure the marital share of an unvested grant from the day it was granted. Other states count from the day you started the job. Those formulas can land on very different numbers for the same options.

So “my prenup protects my equity” isn’t a promise anyone can make in the abstract. Whether a term holds turns on your state and on how carefully the agreement was put together. If equity is a real part of your net worth, that’s a conversation for a lawyer licensed where you live, with your actual grant documents on the table.

And additional wrinkle is that many professionals are not stationary. A well drafted prenup should contain choice of law language and language about how you intend the terms to be interpreted by a future court in a state that you may move to in the future.

What does this mean for you?

If a meaningful share of your assets are tied up in equity you have not fully vested or sold, the time to decide how it’s treated is before the wedding, not during the divorce.

The mistake isn’t necessarily skipping the prenup. It’s signing one that addresses “stock” in one vague line and ignores how restricted equity works - - unvested grants, refresh grants, the tax when options get exercised, a pre-IPO stake worth nothing or everything. A clause that doesn’t name those things is the one that gets fought over years later. And when a prenup is challenged, the first thing the other side digs into is the disclosure. Did you really lay out every grant, or round it off and hope nobody checked?

That is the part we spend the most time on with the executives and founders we work with. Getting the equity disclosed down to the grant, and the terms written to match how the pay is actually structured. In addition, we work with you to address the future, as best you can see it now.

Are prenups always enforced to the letter?

No. This is often an unwelcome surprise to our clients. While prenuptial agreements are more often enforced to the letter in death, many states’ laws allow the court some or much discretion in enforcement of the terms of the prenup in a divorce action.

In Kentucky for example, the prenup must be found to be not unconscionable at the time it was executed and at the time you seek to enforce it. That tends to mean that the longer the marriage, the more likely the court may refuse to enforce all or a portion of the prenup.

Each state approaches enforcement differently. You need an attorney that is well versed in your state’s approach to enforcement – both at the time of drafting and at the time of defending the document in court.

We are frequently on both sides of this issue. We have clients that seek to enforce the terms of their prenuptial agreement. And, we have clients that need to defeat the terms of a prenup. Whichever side you find yourself, choose an attorney that has been there many times before in the courtroom that you will be in.

Straight Answers

Can a prenup cover equity I haven’t received yet?

Yes. A well-drafted prenup can set rules for future grants, not just the ones you hold on the wedding day. It can say whether equity you earn during the marriage is separate, shared, or split by a formula. Spelling it out now beats arguing about it later.

Who pays the taxes when RSUs vest after a divorce?

That depends on what your agreement says, which is exactly why it should say something. Without a plan, the employee spouse can end up holding the full tax bill while the other side took a pre-tax share. A prenup can assign that burden on purpose.

Does a prenup guarantee my equity stays mine?

No. Whether any term holds depends on your state and on how the agreement was made: honest disclosure, real time to review, and a deal a court won’t read as wildly one-sided. There’s no guarantee here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

Getting married with equity on the table? Talk to us before the save-the-dates go out. Brown Carrington helps families across Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, Georgia, and Florida.

This article is general information, not legal advice about your situation.

Last updated: October 15, 2026

Sources: Law.com, “Beyond the Standard Prenup: Smarter Options for Complex Finances” (October 14, 2026) [Add link before publishing.]; Los Angeles Times, “More young couples say ‘sign here’ before ‘I do’” (October 14, 2026) [Add link before publishing.]; Forbes, “Getting Married? A Prenup Can Protect Stock Options And RSUs In Divorce” (July 14, 2026), https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucebrumberg/2026/07/14/getting-married-a-prenup-can-protect-stock-options-and-rsus-in-divorce/