For young people in America, although divorce certainly does still happen, it has been growing less common. The opposite has been happening for couples who are 50 years old and older. Their divorce rate has been going up, and these cases are often referred to as “gray divorces.”
One way in which gray divorce can be easier is that there are often no child custody considerations. Many couples getting divorced in their 50s or 60s do have children, but those children are already adults who have their own careers, who are attending college or who may have gotten married themselves. Without minor children, parents do not need to split up physical and legal custody.
The financial side
However, that does not mean that these cases are easy. From a financial perspective, they are often much more complex. Couples who are older have had decades to accumulate more assets. Many of these assets are very complicated, such as investment portfolios, business ownership or real estate – like family homes and vacation properties.
On top of that, couples at this age are often thinking about retirement. How do they divide their retirement benefits? What do they do with money they have been setting aside to retire if they were originally planning on doing so together? Does the divorce delay their retirement, and what steps do they need to take to protect those financial assets?
These are all very important questions to ask when going through a gray divorce, and it is important for couples who are doing so to understand their legal options.