Video Transcript: The Differences in Divorce as We Age
Dan Couvrette: Hi, I’m Dan Couvrette the publisher of Family Lawyer Magazine and divorcemag.com. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Janine Frisco. Janine’s a top family lawyer in Long Beach, California.
What are the differences in divorce as we age?
Janine M. Frisco: Usually not always. With an older couple, the kids are already grown up, so you don’t have any custody issues. If they’re older, let’s say, and this is their second or third marriage and they have children, then you must worry about their assets that they had before marriage, their separate property they had before marriage.
I would probably advise them, get a prenuptial agreement, or if they already are married and then they want a divorce, or they think that they can’t get along and they want to separate their assets because let’s say their children are putting pressure on them and let’s say, they don’t want to get a divorce. I’ll say, well, then maybe you should do a postnuptial agreement where you can then at that point say, well, then these assets are going to be given to me if we do get a divorce.
This is what we’ve acquired during the marriage or with my separate property and we can divide it that way. There are usually stepchildren involved which makes things a little more difficult, unfortunately.
And if there’s an older couple, I always advise them if you have a trust and the trust is supposed to give that other spouse everything, you’re going to go revoke that trust today because unfortunately there have been people who have passed away during the middle of their divorce and I’ve seen the other spouse get everything when I know for a fact, my client did not want that to happen.