Gray Divorce

Gray Divorce is the term for a couple who splits after age 50. It’s been a trend in the last five or ten years, and has been known by other terms too – “silver splitter” or “diamond divorce”.

Simply put, Gray Divorce is a later-in-life divorce, driven by a reckoning that perhaps the partners are no longer compatible as they come into their own and decide what they want for retirement and beyond. In 2015, every 10 out of 1,000 couples aged 50 or older divorced, which was double the rate for that age range in 1990.

People in their 50s look at life differently, says Alisa Peskin-Shepherd. They can look back and look forward to the changes that they’ve made in their lives and see the person they’ve become through the years of their marriage. Even if a couple has been together for several decades, that doesn’t mean they will weather all the transitions of life in the same way and stay connected. Very often, after raising children together, a couple finds that they no longer have as much in common – or their goals for retirement may differ.

Frankly, in mid-life and later life, we are rarely the same person we were when we were just starting out as adults. The term “gray divorce” does not necessarily refer to “old people.” It’s about facing new issues at new stages of life, and deciding how you want to live your remaining decades.

The issues of a Gray Divorce are understandably different than divorces involving people in their 20s, 30s, or 40s. Child-raising and parenting schedules do not factor into the equation, but retirement and money do.

Both partners want to make sure their futures are secure, and that becomes a big focus during a Gray Divorce. If one spouse did not work and the other did, that comes into scrutiny. Adult children may play a role in the divorce process for some couples, while with younger children, they absolutely are not involved in determining the details of the divorce.

Regardless of your age, the decisions you make during your divorce will affect the rest of your life. At Transitions Legal, we work closely with our clients to make sure the decisions of their divorce sustain them over the decades to come – at every age and stage of life.