The longer your marriage lasted, the higher the chance of you and your ex having a whole lot to sort through when your marriage ends. Gray divorce, or divorce that takes place when you are 50 or older, is becoming more common across the United States. However, there are some special considerations involved when you divorce your spouse later in life.
While most divorces, regardless of the ages of those splitting up, involve dividing property and, if necessary, debts, you may need to consider the following additional areas.
How to divide retirement benefits
When younger people divorce, they do not always make retirement a priority. Often, they figure they have plenty of time left to amass wealth and add to their retirement accounts. In a gray divorce, though, retirement may not be so far away. Unlike younger divorcing couples, who may find that their shared home carries the most value in a divorce, older divorcing couples often find that their retirement accounts are their most valuable assets. For this reason, securing enough for a comfortable retirement is often a gray divorce priority.
How employable you are
If you are growing older and have been out of the workforce for some time now, you may have more of a need to seek alimony, or spousal support, in your divorce. Pennsylvania considers how employable you are and whether you sacrificed your own education or career for that of your husband or wife when making decisions about alimony.
The divorce rate among couples of all ages has gone down over the past 25 years. However, the divorce rate among adults over 50 has increased during this same span, making planning for gray divorce an increasingly relevant topic.
