Are You Sure Your Gray Divorce Settlement Will Leave You Set for Life?

Divorce always feels like a major defeat when you are in the midst of it. If you are young when you get divorced, you might feel like your whole world has shattered, and you are no longer sure of anything you have ever believed. You feel like you are restarting your adult life from zero. By the time you are old, though, you may look back on the years following your divorce and be proud of how you picked yourself up and set yourself on the path to becoming the wise, resilient, compassionate person you are today. Even if you struggle financially after your divorce, you feel that you have many years ahead of you to earn income. By the time you retire, you and your former spouse will have spent decades on different paths, so your finances may be substantially different from your ex’s financial situation by the time you retire. Gray divorce is a different story. When you divorce after age 50, you have already thought clearly about how you want your retirement to be; your task is to rethink it now that you and your spouse must divide your marital property so that you can spend your retirement separately. For help deciding which marital assets to request if you are getting divorced as you approach retirement age, contact a Mississauga family lawyer.

Stress Test Your Estate Plan Before You Accept a Divorce Settlement

People who get divorced in their 50s and beyond have had time to think about the financial future they want and the financial future they can reasonably expect. Before you sign a settlement agreement to divide your marital property, though, you should have some frank conversations with your lawyer about what could go wrong with your finances after you divorce. Sometimes people in their 50s and 60s must retire earlier than they planned, because their health unexpectedly takes a turn for the worse. This can happen to anyone, and when it happens to a married person, the other spouse’s employment income is still there to sustain the family, and eventually the couple has two retirement incomes, even if it is less money than they hoped.

If you are divorced when you retire, even if you stay healthy enough to work for as long as you planned, you don’t have your spouse to help with your care when you need it; your care costs will be higher than you think they will. Furthermore, if you become too ill to work shortly after your divorce, your ex-spouse has no obligation to help support you financially; if you want to know how much money you are entitled to, read the divorce decree. It is better to spend time now thinking things through with your lawyer than to accept an answer of “tough luck” later.

Contact Zagazeta Garcia LLP About Divorce After Age 50

A family lawyer can help you finalize your divorce when you are close to retirement age.  Contact Zagazeta Garcia LLP in Mississauga, Ontario to discuss your case.

Source:

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