Dealing with divorce brings on a lot of stress, worry and anger. Even if you knew this was inevitable, it can still be an emotional situation to work through in life. One of the biggest worries for people going through divorce is if it will destroy their retirement. This is a legitimate worry that will be addressed in today’s post.
Even if you and your spouse decide to get divorced at a young age, your retirement will more than likely take a pretty big hit. Many people think that divorcing decades prior to retirement will save their retirement accounts from taking a hit. This cannot be further from the truth. In almost all instances the retirement accounts will likely be divided in half.
The good thing here is that Indiana is not a community property state. This means that the court will use equitable distribution to determine how assets will be divided in the divorce. This includes how retirement accounts will be handled. Once equitable distribution is put to use, the judge will then determine how the remainder of the assets will be divided.
The best way to protect your retirement accounts is to create a prenuptial agreement prior to getting married. If you are already married and don’t have one, it’s never too late to create a postnuptial agreement.
If your retirement savings were left unprotected, you will need to come up with a new retirement plan once the divorce is finalized.
Are you facing divorce in Indianapolis? You will want to do everything possible to protect your retirement when getting divorced. You can learn more about family law and divorce by speaking with an experienced attorney about your situation.
Source: Madison.com, “Can Divorce Destroy Your Retirement?,” Oct. 13, 2017