Add one more trend to Boomer demographics. Recent research has revealed that Boomers continue to push the limits regarding the prevalence of divorce. While just 33% of married adults from the two preceding generations has experienced a divorce, almost half (46%) of all married Boomers have already been divorced. They will be almost certain to become the first generation for which a majority has been divorced.
And a big part of the divorce, of course, is dealing with retirement assets acquired during a marriage which are considered marital property in most states. Consumer Reports/Money Adviser’s experts say that it is important to know the following:
- Find out who has what. figuring out what retirement assets an individual owns should be easy, but finding the spouse’s might require some digging.
- Get documents in order.
- Consider tax ramifications.
- Protect survivor’s benefits.
- Change beneficiaries.
- Monitor any distributions.
The complete report as covered by The Morning Call can be found here.
The ERISA part can be found in my post, Dividing retirement benefits on divorce, and what ERISA has to say about it.
