Gray Divorce for Snowbirds: When Massachusetts Retirees Own a Florida Home
If you are a Massachusetts couple who also owns a Florida home, your divorce will almost always be heard in Massachusetts, where you are domiciled. Owning property in Florida does not pull the case into Florida courts. The harder questions are which home to keep and how to divide an estate that spans two states. […]
The Marital Home in a Later-Life Divorce: Sell, Keep, or Buy Out?
When you divorce after a long marriage, you have three realistic options for the home: sell and split the proceeds, buy out your spouse’s share, or co-own it for a time. After 50, the buy-out carries the biggest hidden risk, because it often means trading away the retirement savings you will need. For most couples […]
What to Update After a Gray Divorce: Wills, Trusts, and Beneficiaries
After divorce, update your beneficiary designations, will, trusts, health care proxy, durable power of attorney, HIPAA authorization, and property titles. Some change automatically under Massachusetts law; most do not, and the ones you must change yourself are where the costly mistakes happen. When a long marriage ends later in life, the signed divorce judgment can […]
Health Insurance After a Gray Divorce: Medicare, COBRA, and Coverage Gaps
When you divorce, you lose eligibility on your spouse’s employer plan. COBRA can bridge that coverage for up to 36 months, the ACA marketplace covers the gap to age 65, and Medicare begins at 65, possibly on your former spouse’s work record if the marriage lasted 10 years. The short version: COBRA: continues the same […]
Alimony in a Long-Term Marriage: What Late-Life Divorcing Spouses Should Expect
In a Massachusetts marriage of more than 20 years, a court has discretion to order alimony of indefinite duration, with no preset durational cap. Below 20 years, the maximum length is set as a percentage of the months you were married. After thirty or forty years, no part of a later-life divorce is argued harder […]
Social Security and Divorce After 50: Spousal and Ex-Spouse Benefits
You may claim Social Security on a former spouse’s record if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, you are currently unmarried, and you are at least 62. It does not reduce your former spouse’s benefit, and they never need to know. Many people divorcing after a long marriage have no idea they may be […]
Dividing Retirement Savings in a Gray Divorce: 401(k)s, IRAs, Pensions, and QDROs
In a Massachusetts divorce, 401(k)s are split by a QDRO, IRAs by a transfer incident to divorce, and pensions by offset or deferred share. After 50, the tax timing matters more than the headline balance. At thirty, a retirement account is a number you barely look at, a line on a statement that decades will […]
What Is Gray Divorce? Why Divorcing After 50 Is Different
Gray divorce is divorce among couples age 50 and older, typically ending a long marriage. It differs from divorce earlier in life because the financial stakes (retirement, real estate, and security) are larger and the timeline to recover is shorter. For decades, divorce was thought of as a young person’s crossroads, a fork in the […]
Postnuptial Agreements in Massachusetts: When a Mid-Marriage Agreement Makes Sense
You can sign a financial agreement after you are already married. Postnups are less common than prenups, but in the right situation they are one of the most powerful tools available in Massachusetts family law. For decades, the question of whether postnuptial agreements were even enforceable in Massachusetts was unsettled. That changed in 2010, when […]
Prenuptial Agreements in Massachusetts: What They Cover and When You Need One
A prenup is not a vote of no-confidence in the marriage. In Massachusetts, it is one of the few financial conversations you can only have once, and the window closes the day you say “I do.” A prenuptial agreement is a contract entered into before marriage that defines how property, assets, and certain financial obligations […]