Gray Divorce – Check Your Facts

Divorce is difficult at any age, but divorce at an older age has a variety of complications. This divorce is often referred to as a "gray divorce" or a divorce in which the couple are older and civil attorneys in OKC are getting cases of it frequently. The rate of gray divorces is rising dramatically because older people find it easier to divorce and the risks are not as high. Yes, the 50 + gray divorce rate has more than doubled.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the divorce rate for aged 55-64 has risen from 5 out of 1000 marriages to 15 divorces out of 1,000. This grew from 1.8 to 5 for those 65 or older.

Income after Divorce

Most spouses are concerned that if they are divorced near or after retirement, they do not have sufficient income to meet their needs. When a long marriage, repairs or food may be required but the single breadwinner may have a relatively short maintenance period (or none). Two households cost more than one.

It is very hard for the partner who didn't work to try and reintegrate the workforce late in life. Splitting pension accounts would make it impossible for either partner to maintain their lives had they not split. Older spouses can receive compensation that is much more complex than newly employed ones. Be vigilant when deciding maintenance/limitation: rewards, equity limited units, stock options, corporate ownership, executive compensation packages, auto benefits, and travel advantage are all common features for those at peaks and ends of their career.

Divorce finance

The economic impact is even more pronounced. As more and more baby boomers end their relationships, they are wrecking their economies at an unprecedented level sometimes for the second or third time.

If you divorce after 50 years of age, expect to drop your wealth by approximately 50%. After all, any divorce means splitting the assets of a family. However, earnings often collapse following a gray divorce, especially for women. Researchers examined living standards— household size adjusted income — as a result of the fact that a single adult needs less income than a single parent with two children at home. They find that when women divorce after 50 years of age, living standards fall 45%. This is twice as much as in previous research on younger divorced women.

Survivor Benefits After Divorce

If your former spouse dies, if your marriage lasts longer than 10 years, you are still single, and you are 60 (or 50 if you are handicapped) may qualify for survivor benefits.

Medicare and Health Insurance Coverage

If you are eligible for social security benefits, you may qualify for Medicare on the basis of the income of your former spouse. In particular you must be 65 years old to apply, but after a qualifying period you can be qualified for Medicare by the elderly, divorced widows and widows under 65.

Life Insurance and Health Insurance

You can request to maintain a life insurance policy to cover the alimonies if the person dies. This can be troublesome, because life insurance policies can expire or become very costly to maintain with age. You have to be very careful about this issue.

During a gray divorce, health insurance is a critical issue. You need continuous coverage, but it might be more costly for you than for younger people who divorce. Before negotiating your divorce agreement, you should remember your health insurance expenses.

The average divorce rate of the U.S. increases even when the number of divorces reaches 50 years old. The cause is a generational breakup: Americans postponed or, in some cases, missed marriage in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Those who get hitched will be happy to stay together. In the meantime, baby boomers–who caused the rate of divorce to increase in the 1970s–tend to divorce more often when they are retired.

Contact Foshee and Yaffee for civil attorneys in OKC for gray divorce.

**Disclaimer: This content is not to be construed as legal advice nor does it establish terms of a client-attorney relationship.