Separation at any age can be difficult. However, grey divorce has unique challenges and requires expert family law and financial advice, to ensure that both spouses can survive in their golden years.
With grey divorces you change from joint goals for your financial future and retirement, to trying to divide what you have built over a lifetime together, to both start over. Your retirement plan goes out the window and you need to plan from scratch.
Research has shown that grey divorce can take a particularly serious financial toll on women.
At an age where you have worked together, perhaps given up a career to raise a family, with the expectation of enjoying a comfortable retirement, you can have the rug pulled from underneath you.
Given that when you reach retirement age, you can generally expect to live another 25 odd years, this is a frightening prospect.
The key is to ensure that the family law property settlement you receive is not only within the range of your legal entitlement, but appropriately structured to suit your retirement needs.
There is no point in taking an expensive home that generates you no income, and not having money to live on.
When we assist a woman with a grey divorce, we work with financial planners – in particular those with expertise in retirement planning – to ensure that financial outcomes are maximised. It is not as simple as selling everything and dividing it – that can result in less money for everyone. A carefully crafted agreement and maximise outcomes for both spouses and ensure financial security moving forward.
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