Levested

Levested is a rarely used term in corporate law and finance that denotes the reversal or withdrawal of a previously granted vested interest. In this sense, to levest would mean that an asset or right that had become exercisable or owned reverts to an unvested or forfeitable status. The term is not part of standard legal dictionaries and does not have a fixed, widely accepted definition. It appears only sporadically in legal commentary, draft plans, or discussions of equity compensation, and is often used inconsistently or as a neologism.

In practice, phenomena described as levesting would typically be handled through established mechanisms such as forfeiture, clawback, or reverse vesting, depending on the contract and jurisdiction. Vesting itself refers to earning rights over time, whereas unvesting or forfeiture is the loss of those rights; reverse vesting refers to an arrangement where rights are granted with vesting contingent on continued service or performance. Levested rights would therefore depend on the precise contractual language and regulatory rules governing the plan.

Because levested is not standardized, readers should rely on defined terms in the relevant agreement and prefer conventional terms like unvesting, forfeiture, clawback, or reverse vesting for clarity.