Divorce law in Illinois is largely written for couples with two working adults who may have children. While Illinois divorce law does not explicitly address retirement and divorce, many relevant principles can be derived from the statutes and case law. Experienced Illinois divorce lawyer Russell D. Knight can help apply those principles so that your retirement is minimally affected by your divorce, and your divorce is minimally affected by your retirement. The financial aspects of a Chicago, Illinois divorce are determined by two factors: 1) the assets of the parties and 2) the incomes of the parties. When one of the parties retires or prepares for retirement, a significant change will happen to their income and even their assets as they begin to draw them down. In an Illinois divorce, Assets get divided in that marital assets are divided equitably. Income can be used to establish that the higher earning spouse pays maintenance to the lower earning spouse…so long as that higher earning spouse is working. When determining maintenance the court considers a variety of “factors including the needs of both parties (see 750 ILCS 5/504(a)(2) (West 2016)); the standard of living established during the marriage (see id. § 504(a)(7)); the income and property of each party and the debt obligations assigned to each party in the dissolution judgment (see id. §§ 504(a)(1), 510(a-5)(6)); the duration of the marriage (see id. § 504(a)(8)); the age, health, and employment capability of the parties (see id. § 504(a)(3), (5), (9)); and the tax consequences of ordering maintenance (see id. § 510(a-5)(4)).” In Re Marriage of Harms and Parker, 2018 IL App (5th) 160472. It is obvious that retirement or pending retirement can affect each of the above factors as the court decides on maintenance issues in a case. The retiring party, if over 65, is typically not held to an obligation to work. My experience is that most judges are in their 60s and they, themselves, are looking forward to retirement and therefore sympathize with the retiring party at least to the extent that the court won’t force them to keep working. A retired spouse’s assets may generate income that could possibly be considered for maintenance purposes. Yet, it is difficult to imagine that those assets wouldn’t have been equally divided, thereby giving the other spouse their own equal stream of income and thus making that spouse ineligible for maintenance. Upon retirement of […]
