Hi, ex and I agreed that we would split his stock and stock options in our settlement agreement. Our official separation date is 5/1/00. We negotiated all summer did not sign off until November. We put the actual numbers in account over the summer. On 10/22 stock split. I have calls in to my attorney because ex only wants to give me what was specified in agreement which is 25% of what is in accounts now - settlement was done before knowledge of split. What do you think? Am I doomed or do you think that if we went to court over this the judge would rule that the intent was to give me half of the stock and stock options?

Yes, area of expertise, options that is.<P>Now i am not an area of expertise in the legal handling, but do you know how the value of the options were calculated? which model was used? and what the inputs were? and the source of the inputs. usually Black scholes is used, but the inputs are key, and they can change daily.<P>I assume they are employee provided.<P>here is the deal with options, they are very volatile, are tricky to value, and there are two ways to handle them to make it fair in a divorce:<P>1) exercise and deliver the stock underlying the options to you for your portion of the number of shares. You then participate in the appreciation independently from him. the cost here is that there are 40% regular employment taxes paid, as well as the requirement to pay at delivery the number of shares. So, if your portion of the settlement is 100 shares at $25, strike price of $10,<P>someone has to cough up $10 times 100 shares for the stock, plus 40% times ($25-$10) for the government and state withholding tax.<P>2) legally you cannot get your shares assigned to you, but you may be able to bind him to appreciation of the options in the future.<P>3) the other position is to value the options, and take your portion in cash from somewhere else, this avoids the large payments to the government, meaning you actually make out in the deal. you get full value as of the date, no taxes. again, how was the value determined. if the value was determined UNFAIRLY< you may have a case to revalue correctly, at the higher price.<P>4) since the options could go down and be worth nothing, as 50% of mine were, you can't go and revalue them everyday, especially in a down market.<P>I advise you to make sure you have valued them correctly, with an independent CPA firm, using the Balck Scholes model, using the historical market implied volatility as provided by the Chicago Options exchange, <A HREF="http://www.cboe.com," TARGET=_blank>www.cboe.com,</A> and the interest rate for that time, from daily 3 month tbills as provided by the federal reserve at the following site: <A HREF="http://www.stls.frb.org/fred/index.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.stls.frb.org/fred/index.html</A> <P>there is a valuation calculator at the cboe site, just make sure all your inputs are correct.<P>if you need to discuss more,<BR>email me at whenifindthetime@yahoo.com<P>and we can do it on the phone.<P>WIFTT<P>oh yeah, options, i live for options.