TL;DR: For finance professionals, most compensation arrives as bonuses, deferred cash, and equity that vests over years. According to the New York State Comptroller (2026), bonuses made up about 42% of securities-industry wages, and the average NYC securities bonus reached $246,900. A prenup lets a couple decide up front how the marital and pre-marital portions of these awards are treated, instead of leaving it to court time-rule formulas.If you work in finance, or you are marrying someone who does, you already know the paycheck is the least interesting part of the story. The base salary shows up on a pay stub. The rest arrives later, in pieces, tied to performance, vesting schedules, and the fund's eventual returns. That structure is what makes planning around finance compensation different, and it is why a prenup built around your actual comp can do more for you than one built around a snapshot of today's net worth. Prenups have become a mainstream planning tool for two-career and high-earning couples, as the data in our prenup statistics overview shows.
The numbers back this up. The average bonus paid to New York City securities-industry employees was $246,900 in 2025, up 6% from the prior year, according to the Office of the New York State Comptroller . That estimate covers NYC securities employees only, and it excludes most unvested deferred stock and bonuses paid outside the city, so treat it as a floor rather than a full picture. Even so, it makes the point: for a finance professional, bonus and deferred pay often dwarf base salary. A prenup that ignores that is planning around the wrong number.
Why finance compensation makes prenups different Most generic prenup advice assumes a fairly simple financial life: a salary, a house, maybe some savings. Finance compensation does not fit that mold. A large share of what you earn is deferred, variable, and paid in forms that vest over multiple years.
Consider the base-pay baseline. The median annual wage for financial managers was $161,700 in May 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . Financial and investment analysts had a median of $101,350, and securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents came in at $78,140. Those figures describe base and reported wages. They understate total compensation because bonuses and equity sit on top of them, sometimes many times over. For senior bankers and fund staff, the base is often the minority of what they take home.
That gap matters for a prenup. When most of your compensation arrives after the fact, and much of it is earned over a period that may straddle your wedding date, the question of what counts as marital property gets complicated fast. This is the same equity-and-vesting challenge that tech workers with RSUs face, and it overlaps heavily with what high earners generally need to think about. Finance adds its own wrinkles: deferred cash, clawbacks, and carried interest that most prenup templates never mention.
The core question: which part is marital? Here is the technical heart of the matter, in plain terms. When an award is earned partly before the marriage and partly during it, or granted during the marriage but paid out after a separation, courts have to decide how much of it belongs to the marriage and how much stays separate. That single question drives most of the complexity around finance comp.
Without a prenup, courts commonly answer it with a time-based formula. The idea is to look at how much of the vesting or earning period fell during the marriage and treat that proportion as marital. Family lawyers often call this a coverture fraction, a time-based calculation that estimates how much of an award that vests across a marriage counts as marital property. The American Bar Association's Family Law Section describes this apportionment approach in its 2025 analysis of restricted stock in divorce, and state courts apply variations of it consistently.
A prenup lets a couple set that rule themselves, in advance, instead of leaving it to a formula applied years later during a divorce. You can agree that certain categories of future compensation are separate, that others are shared, or that a particular splitting method applies. The default rules also depend on whether you live in a community property or equitable distribution state, and in the latter, "equitable" does not always mean "equal." Our state-by-state guide walks through how those defaults differ.
Bonuses and deferred cash Start with the most common piece: the annual bonus. Whether a bonus is marital or separate generally turns on when the work behind it was performed. A bonus earned for work done during the marriage is typically treated as marital or community property, even if it lands in your account months later, after a separation. Deferred cash compensation, including non-qualified deferred comp that pays out over several years, raises the same timing question in a longer form.
This is where finance comp diverges from a simple salary. A single bonus might reward a full year of work, part of which happened before the wedding and part after. Deferred cash can vest over three, four, or five years, straddling the marriage in ways that make clean characterization hard. A prenup can specify how bonuses and their deferred portions are classified, so the rule is settled before anyone is arguing about a specific payout.
The practical value here is precision. Rather than relying on a court to reconstruct when value was earned across a multi-year deferral, a couple can agree on the treatment now, while they have the documents in front of them and time to think it through calmly.
RSUs, options, and equity vesting across the marriage Equity compensation is where the timing problem shows up most clearly, and it works much the same in finance as it does in tech. Restricted stock units and stock options are a form of deferred compensation, and grants that vest across a marriage are the classic case for apportionment.
RSUs granted during the marriage that vest after separation are commonly divided using a time-based coverture fraction, unless a prenup provides otherwise. The ABA's 2025 analysis lays out the main approaches courts and lawyers use: dividing the shares if, as, and when they vest; a buyout where one partner keeps the equity and compensates the other for the marital share; or a deferred division handled at vesting. Each approach carries different tax and cash-flow consequences.
A prenup lets you classify future and unvested grants as separate or shared up front, instead of relying on a court to pick a formula later. If you expect to receive equity grants throughout your career, that ability to set a consistent rule can be worth far more than the paperwork it takes. We cover the mechanics of RSU and option vesting in more depth in our guide for tech workers , and the same principles apply to finance grants.
Here is how the default treatment tends to shift depending on when an award was granted and when it vests. These are general tendencies, not guarantees, and a prenup can change the result in any of these cells.
Compensation type
Granted before marriage
Granted during marriage / vests during marriage
Granted during marriage / vests after separation
Annual bonus (cash)
Generally separate if earned pre-marriage
Generally marital
Often apportioned by when work was performed
Deferred cash (NQDC)
Often separate, but vesting may blur it
Generally marital
Frequently split by a time-based formula
RSUs / stock options
Often separate as to the pre-marital grant
Generally marital
Commonly divided by a coverture fraction
Carried interest / fund stake
Often partly separate
Depends heavily on when value was created
Fact-specific; may still reflect marital-era work
Trust-held assets
Often separate if properly structured
Depends on contributions and structure
Depends on trust terms and state law
Carried interest, fund stakes, clawbacks, and trusts This is the section most prenup content skips, and it is where finance professionals have the most at stake. Carried interest, a share of an investment fund's future profits paid to fund professionals if the fund performs well, does not behave like a salary or even like a normal equity grant. It can be separate property, marital property, or a mix, depending on when the value behind it was created.
The tricky part is timing. A carry payment received well after a separation may still reflect work and value created during the marriage, and a fund stake earned before the wedding may keep generating returns for years afterward. Because of that, characterization is fact-specific and turns on how much of the value depended on work done during the marriage versus after it. There is no single national rule, and we are keeping this deliberately general rather than pointing to any one state's approach. What we can say confidently is that a generic prenup rarely addresses carry with the precision it deserves, and a prenup can set the rule in advance so it is not litigated from scratch later.
Clawbacks add another layer. In finance, pay that has already been credited to you can be reversed if the fund underperforms or if a forfeiture provision is triggered. If a bonus or carry distribution is counted in a divorce settlement and then clawed back afterward, you have a problem that default law handles poorly. A prenup can specify how a later clawback or forfeiture is allocated between partners, rather than leaving it as an open question that surfaces at the worst possible time.
Trusts are common in this world too, whether for estate planning or to hold a fund interest. Whether trust-held assets stay separate depends on how the trust is structured, who contributed to it, and the law of your state. If a trust is part of your picture, it deserves specific attention in the agreement; our explainer on how a prenup interacts with a trust covers the interaction in more detail.
How First fits: setting your own rule in advance The reason a prenup is useful for finance professionals is not that it locks in an outcome. No prenup can do that; enforceability is decided case by case by a judge under the rules of your state. What a well-drafted prenup is designed to do is give clearer, more predictable treatment of your deferred comp and equity than default state law supplies, on terms you chose while you had time and full information.
That predictability rests on a mature legal foundation. The Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, a model law that standardizes how prenups are treated, has been adopted by 29 states plus the District of Columbia, according to the Uniform Law Commission . It is worth understanding who signs prenups today and why; our overview of who gets a prenup puts the finance case in context.
First built its packages for couples with complex but planable finances who want to handle this carefully without a six-figure legal process. No hourly bills, no surprise scope, no back and forth that drags for months. The Self-Serve package is do-it-yourself and does not include attorney involvement. The Lawyer Review and Bespoke packages add attorney review, which matters when your agreement has to speak clearly about carry, deferred cash, and vesting schedules. If you are weighing platforms, our online prenup buyer's guide lays out what to look for.
Frequently asked questions Are my bonuses considered marital property? It depends on when the work was performed. A bonus earned for work done during the marriage is generally treated as marital or community property, even if paid later. A prenup can specify how bonuses, including deferred portions, are classified so the rule is settled before any dispute arises.
How are unvested RSUs handled in a divorce? RSUs granted during the marriage that vest after separation are usually split between marital and separate portions using a time-based formula, unless a prenup says otherwise. A prenup lets you classify future and unvested grants as separate or shared up front, instead of relying on a court formula later.
Is carried interest marital or separate property? It can be either, or a mix. Courts look at when the interest was earned and how much depends on post-separation work. Because a carry payment received after separation may still reflect value created during the marriage, characterization is fact-specific. A prenup can set the rule in advance.
Can a prenup cover compensation that does not exist yet? Yes. A prenup can set how future grants, bonuses, and fund interests will be characterized before they are ever awarded. This is one reason finance couples value setting terms early, while there is time to review and negotiate calmly.
What happens if a bonus gets clawed back after divorce? Clawbacks and forfeiture provisions can reverse pay already counted in a settlement, which is why they should be addressed directly. A prenup can specify how a later clawback or forfeiture is handled between partners rather than leaving it as an open question.
Do we each need our own attorney? Requirements vary by state, and some rules, like a spousal-support waiver in California, turn on independent counsel. First offers a Lawyer Review package where the agreement is reviewed by an attorney; the Self-Serve package is do-it-yourself and does not include attorney involvement. If your situation is complex, independent counsel is worth considering.
Start when you and your partner are ready Finance compensation rewards people who plan ahead, read the fine print, and think in terms of what happens years down the line. A prenup applies that same discipline to your marriage: you decide how your bonuses, deferred cash, equity, and carry will be treated, calmly and with full information, instead of leaving it to a formula in a courtroom later.
If that sounds like the careful version of a decision you were already thinking about, First is built for exactly this. Start when you and your partner are ready, on your own timeline.
First is not a law firm. The information and tools provided by First on this site are not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
Default rules and enforceability vary by state, and the characterization of deferred compensation and carried interest is fact-specific. Talk with a licensed attorney about how these principles apply to your situation.
Methodology These figures are drawn from the New York State Comptroller's 2026 Wall Street bonus estimate, covering the 2025 bonus season for New York City securities-industry employees, and from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2024. The Comptroller's estimate is based on personal income tax withholding trends and does not include most unvested deferred stock or bonuses paid outside New York City.
Sources
Office of the New York State Comptroller, 2026, "DiNapoli: $246,900 Average Bonus on Wall Street, Up 6% in 2025" : bonuses accounted for about 42% of securities-industry wages and the $246,900 average 2025 NYC securities bonus.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2024 : median annual wages for financial managers, analysts, and securities sales agents.American Bar Association Family Law Section, 2025, "Demystifying the Analysis and Division of Restricted Stock Units in Divorce Proceedings" : RSUs as deferred compensation and the main approaches to characterization and division.Uniform Law Commission : adoption of the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act by 29 states plus the District of Columbia. 
