When you get married later in life, there is no doubt that you’ll be concerned about different things than if you were young. You may be concerned about losing your home, retirement income or investments. You might worry that you won’t have enough income to support yourself.
It’s reasonable to have these concerns as you get older. A gray divorce has many factors to consider, such as how to divide your retirements, spousal support for a nonworking spouse and others.
What can you do to protect yourself and your assets when you marry later in life?
If you’re getting married later in life and have many assets to your name, then it may be a good idea to establish a prenuptial agreement to discuss how you’ll divide specific assets upon divorce.
If you’re already married and do not have a prenuptial agreement, you can seek a postnuptial agreement instead. This agreement is similar to a prenuptial agreement other than the fact that it takes place after your marriage.
What if you have no prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement and want to divorce?
If you are going to divorce but have no pre- or postnuptial agreement, then it’s important to start gathering information before you discuss the option of divorce with your spouse. This can help you protect yourself should those documents be difficult to collect later on.
You should collect information on:
- Your financial accounts, like banking accounts or savings accounts
- Your stocks or digital assets
- Your retirement plan as well as your spouse’s plan
- Your mortgage or deed, if you own your home
Your attorney can give you a list of documents that you should try to collect before you move forward with your divorce. You should collect these before you talk to your spouse about divorcing whenever possible, especially if there is a risk that your spouse may attempt to hide assets or restrict your access to the information once you file for divorce. While that information will need to be reported by your spouse in the future, it’s much easier if you have all the documentation you can gather at the start of your divorce.