Gray Divorce - Part I
Divorces between couples who are over the age of 50 and who’ve had long marriages – often called “Gray Divorces” – present unique emotional, logistical and legal challenges.
Those who fall into the Gray Divorce category are certainly not alone—divorce rates among couples age 50 and older have more than doubled since 1990. (An interesting article about the increasing rates can be found here.)
Untangling couples from one another financially is never a small feat, so it makes sense that the longer a couple has been married and the more entwined their lives have become, the more challenging it becomes to untangle assets like retirement accounts, pensions, and real estate. It also means addressing cash flow differently, as couples going through a Gray Divorce need to understand and address fixed incomes, required minimum distributions, social security benefits, investment portfolios, and health insurance implications, to name a few. And of course, many people are still supporting their young adult and adult children financially, necessitating conversations about how that might continue or begin to look different.
While these challenges can feel overwhelming, folks who are entering the Gray Divorce process have good options that can meet their needs for financial security, control, peace of mind, and confidentiality.
One such option is a Collaborative Divorce, which gives clients the autonomy to make their own carefully thought-out decisions about the best way for them to divide their assets, manage their cash flow, and lessens the damage to their adult children.
In addition to autonomy, clients in a Collaborative Divorce can work with and rely upon neutral third parties, like financial advisors or Certified Public Accountants, to enable couples to make informed choices about their finances. By engaging a neutral third party, we reduce costs and increase trust, as both spouses are hearing the same unbiased information at the same time. After gathering important datapoints from the neutral, our clients are able to make empowered and creative decisions about how to divide the assets to meet their future cash flow needs, minimize and equalize potential tax burdens, and take into consideration hard-to-value assets like pensions. Due to the complex financial issues often presented by Gray Divorces, engaging neutral third parties ensures that you understand and are comfortable with your decisions.
Finally, because the Collaborative Process is a series of meetings, it proceeds on your timeline. Rather than being beholden to the court’s schedule, spouses in a Collaborative Divorce work with their attorneys to schedule joint meetings as the client sees fit. Whether you need more time to think about a certain decision, need to pause discussions to seek advice of a neutral third party, or something unexpected comes up and you need to move quicker than expected, the Collaborative process creates space for flexibility so that you can tailor the process to what you specifically need.
You can read a bit more on the Collaborative process here and here.
If you’d like to know more about Gray Divorce, please call Gondring Law at 336.724.4488 or email us at info@gondringlaw.com.
