Golden Handcuffs

These are financial benefits that encourage an employee to stay with a company. Most commonly, these refer to unvested stock options or restricted stock units that provide an employee with a financial benefit should they be employed with the company at a certain date in the future; if they are not employed, they forfeit the benefits. At a divorce, if the employee-spouse leaves the company, the other spouse might claim waste for the unrealized benefits that the employee-spouse forfeited.