Spousal Consent for Equity Grants

If your company operates in a community property state, this one's for you.

The compliance gap this closes

In states like California, Texas, and Washington, equity granted to an employee is legally owned 50/50 by both spouses. But historically, the spouse never signed the grant agreement — creating real exposure. A divorcing spouse could claim they're not bound by transfer restrictions, ROFR, or buyback rights, and potentially become an unintended shareholder with unconstrained voting power.

Until now, there was no clean way to handle this inside Carta.

What's new

Spousal consent is now built directly into the equity grant acceptance flow. When required, the spouse signs inside Carta — no separate document management, no offline coordination.

This works for PIUs, option grants, and RSAs.

A note on PIUs specifically: the PIU acceptance experience has been fully rebuilt to match the modern grant acceptance flow. This was a required prerequisite for spousal consent support, and it's a meaningful improvement on its own.

How it works

• Companies can include spousal consent as part of any document set — it's flexible, not mandatory

• Built on the same infrastructure as the Witness Signature flow already in use for UK clients

• Available now for all accounts on Carta Web, including C-corps and LLCs

What's coming next

Phantom and SAR/UAR acceptance pages are being updated as a fast follow, with fillable template and spousal consent support for those security types coming in the next few weeks.

Drop any questions below.