Its partners earn an average of $655,000 a year.

If two partners earn $40,000 each, a decision to get married could, on its face, cost them more than $1,000.

Yet under the changes if my partner earned more than £7, 500 I would be eligible for nothing.

Andersen's services do not come cheap - senior partners earn $250 an hour.

But that is far less than a partner at an investment bank like Lazard can earn.

The average partner at the firm earns about $1 million a year.

"If the fund does well, the partners earn the 20 percent, get more money and wear smiles to bed," he writes.

Industry experts estimate that the partners each earn an average of about $200,000 annually.

Mr. Salinas and a partner each earned about $109 million but did not tell the board.

The partners earn a pension, but at $3,500 a month, it is fairly small among professional partnerships.