Gray Divorce

Gray Divorce is the term for a couple who splits after age 50. It’s been an increasing trend as the population ages and has been known by other terms too – “silver splitter” or “diamond divorce”.

Simply put, Gray Divorce is a later-in-life marital split, 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 the latest research, the most significant divorce rates among Americans occurred in people aged 65 and older; the rate tripled from 1990 to 2021. Divorce is rising among boomers even as it decreases among younger populations nationwide.

Older adults look at life differently, says Alisa Peskin-Shepherd. They can look back and ahead to how their lives have evolved and see the person they’ve become through years of marriage. Even if a couple has been together for decades, that doesn’t mean they will weather all the transitions of life and stay connected. Very often, after children leave home, a couple finds they no longer have as much in common as they used to – or their goals for retirement may differ.

In midlife and later, we are rarely the same as we were when just starting out. The term “gray divorce” is a colloquial way to refer to a reckoning for how you might want to approach new issues at new stages of life, and deciding how 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 no longer factor into the equation, but retirement, property and assets do.

Both partners want to make sure their futures are secure, so assuring financial security becomes a big focus of 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 their parents’ 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 decades to come – at every age and stage.