Divorcing later in life 'can adversely affect finances'

Divorcing a spouse later in life can be detrimental to people's financial positions, it has been suggested.

Writing in the Independent, Alessia Horwich and Julian Knight said that with retirement incomes being hit by the recession and poor investment performance, officially separating can "seriously affect" people's finances.

They pointed out that unlike divorcees who are younger, people leaving their husbands and wives towards the end of their working lives have limited earning potential and limited assets on which they must rely for the rest of their lives.

The writers said: "This means that already undersized pension pots suddenly have to support two separate sets of living costs."

It was also pointed out that the largest assets most couples own are their homes and with the housing market in the UK still depressed, people may not be able to achieve a sale price that reflects what the property was worth until recently.

Earlier this month, Safe Home Income Plans released research which suggested that pensioners going through divorces currently could lose up to 22.5 per cent of the value of their properties as a result of the credit crunch.
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17/06/2009 16:36

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