I get the impression that in some jurisdictions, deferred equity compensation kicks in earlier than one would otherwise expect, in order to hit some employment law cut-outs for "highly compensated executives".

I worked over 10 years overseas at a Fortune 500 financial firm where my contract specified that my garden leave period jumped up if I ever accepted stock compensation. I got the feeling that was related to some legal requirements for shedding protections for "highly compensated executives". The garden leave worked out well, as I left right at the end of my paternity leave, so I effectively had almost half a year of paternity leave.

I didn't bother checking if I was getting the maximum legally allowed garden leave period in my jurisdiction, as the contract seemed fair. In any case, in some jurisdictions, I think some deferred equity compensation kicks in earlier than one might expect, in order to legally make more employees highly compensated executives.

I've always lived well within my means at my base salary, but even if I hadn't a good head hunter can often negotiate a signing bonus to partially backfill the lost expected TC , so you're effectively not really going down to your base salary during garden leave.

Might depend on the firm (or times) then, the starting trader TC is already pushing 600K at HRT, JS, etc. and many don't let you invest year 1 even if you wanted to. I'd be shocked if any of the major names made you take comp as a stake in the fund pre-1m today.

Large banks are for sure a different story, though I've heard of other large banks buying people out that they wanted to hire by offering the equivalent package in their stock of what the guy would've made in the other company's stock.