Getting divorced later in life can be tough for a number of reasons. To start, it can be emotionally challenging to disentangle yourself from someone you’ve spent years building a life with, but there are also numerous legal issues that you’ll have to confront, several of which require a different approach compared to younger people who seek divorce.
In this post, we will look at some of those issues that are unique to gray divorces, the term used for divorce involving individuals aged 50 and older, that way you’ll have a better understanding of what to expect and what to prepare for as you proceed with your marriage dissolution.
Unique divorce issues to address in your gray divorce
To achieve the best outcome possible in your divorce, you have to be thoroughly prepared. This includes being aware of the following issues and developing a plan for how to tackle them:
- Retirement issues: Getting divorced later in life means that you’ll have less time to replenish your retirement accounts. Therefore, you shouldn’t be so quick to give in on the division of these assets. Carefully think through what you’ll need to be stable moving into retirement and your ability to secure appropriate employment to build up your retirement accounts. If you’re going to fall short despite your best efforts, then you may need to consider other divorce strategies that seek to secure a larger portion of the marital estate or spousal support.
- Inheritances: In a lot of gray divorces, inheritances, both those already acquired and those that are anticipated, can come into play. You need to properly assess whether those inheritances that have been received are marital in nature or if they’ve truly been kept separate and therefore should be removed from the property division process. You also shouldn’t be duped into accepting less in your divorce settlement because of an anticipated inheritance. Remember, nothing is certain about an inheritance, while an order on property division is final.
- Complete income assessment: As we age, our streams of revenue may diversify. If you want to get what you deserve out of your divorce, then you have to have a clear understanding of what your spouse makes and where that income is coming from. You don’t want to overlook your spouse’s bonuses or their investment income when considering what should be included in your property division and spousal support determinations.
- Potential need for long-term care: It may not seem like it right now, but there’s a good chance that you’ll need long-term care of some sort in the future. You need to take that into account when you consider the assets you’ll need to be stable moving into the next chapter of your life.
- Insurance: If you’re on your spouse’s insurance and will have to enter the open marketplace to secure a policy once your divorce is finalized, then you might be in for a shock at the expense associated with securing coverage. That’s something you’ll want to take into consideration as you think through what financial resources to seek through the property division process.
Don’t blindly walk into your gray divorce
Your gray divorce requires a tailored approach targeted at securing an outcome that’s right for you. This requires thorough preparation and aggressive advocacy. If you don’t have a proper legal strategy in place, then you could lose out on the resources you need to be stable in the next chapter of your life. So, take the time needed to thoroughly analyze your circumstances and develop the divorce legal strategy most likely to achieve the outcome you want.