High-asset divorce cases are more common with older couples who have had longer to accumulate assets. Two people who get married in their 20s may have very little to their name, and they may only have liabilities – student loans, mortgage payments, credit cards, bills and so on. But by the time that couple is in their 50s or 60s, they may have paid off their debts and accumulated assets like investment portfolios, real estate, retirement plans, life insurance policies and much more.
For this reason, it’s important to consider that older couples have a rising divorce rate. Interestingly, the rate seems to be going up for those who are over 45. For couples under 45, the divorce rate in the United States has been dropping for years. But for the age group that is most likely to experience a high-asset divorce, it has just been growing more common.
The complexities this creates
Divorce at this age can come with many different complexities. The children may be out of the house, meaning that child custody isn’t an issue, but you still have to think about what you’re planning to do with the family home and how to divide up a lifetime’s worth of assets. It can be hard to figure out what to do with items that have sentimental value or complex shared assets – such as a family business that you both run together.
Another issue to consider in this age bracket is what happens to a retirement account. You can sometimes use a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) to divide retirement benefits in a divorce. This is not something that many younger couples are even thinking about, but someone who is getting divorced just a few years before retirement may consider those benefits to be the most important assets that they own.
If you’re going through a complex, high-asset divorce, carefully take the time to look into your legal options.
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