Divorcing at or near retirement creates additional risk to women’s financial security. The statistics indicate that after divorce an average woman’s standard of living drops by 45% as compared to 21% for an average man. According to this article, there are several reasons that may explain this gap including losing employer- based health coverage, reduced social security benefits because of a shorter work history and unfavorable division of marital assets whereby the wife may give up retirement assets to keep the marital home.
