Divorce has changed. And the most dangerous mistake in modern cases is happening on paper.
More than a third of divorces today involve someone over 50. These are long-term savers, often with six-figure retirement accounts and decades of pre-marital contributions. But when it comes time to divide those assets, the legal language guiding the split is often decades behind.
And that’s where things fall apart.
Retirement accounts used to be simple. Now, they’re anything but.
Since the early 1980s, 401(k)s have ballooned into one of the largest sources of household wealth, now holding over $8.9 trillion. In late-life divorces, we frequently see plan balances nearing $600,000or more.
Yet the settlement language used to divide them is often copied from templates written in a different financial era. Before Roth rollovers. Before hardship withdrawals. Before the explosion of post-marital activity that can quietly sabotage a fair split.
The old “just divide the marital portion” mindset doesn’t hold up anymore.
Late-life divorces are uniquely complicated. There’s more history behind each account—and more ways for things to go wrong. Rollovers made after the cutoff date. Loans that were never disclosed. Contributions made in secret. If your agreement doesn’t address these clearly, the plan administrator can’t step in and sort it out.
They’re legally barred from interpreting vague language. And they can’t fix a mistake after judgment.
We see this play out all the time.
At TOVA, we’re brought in to value and divide retirement accounts in complex divorces. Increasingly, we’re seeing well-meaning attorneys blindsided—by a rollover they didn’t know about, a gain/loss clause that was missing, or a loan that invalidated an equalization strategy.
These errors are costly. And in late-life cases, the consequences hit harder. There’s less time to rebuild. Less margin for error.
That’s why I created the Settlement Language Lab.
It’s a free, private, CLE-level session we offer to law firms handling complex divorce cases. It’s not theory—it’s real-world clause dissection, issue-spotting, and strategy refinement based on live cases.
We walk through actual settlement language and point out exactly where problems are likely to arise. Attorneys leave with tools they can use immediately—like our Issue-Spotter Guide, updated clause language, and a checklist to avoid the most common (and dangerous) pitfalls.
If your firm handles high-asset or late-life divorce, this matters. Because clients over 50 are relying on these assets to fund the rest of their lives. And they’re trusting you to protect what they’ve worked decades to earn.
One clause. One rollover. One missed detail can change everything.
If you’re ready to strengthen your settlement language and reduce risk for your firm, I’d love to have you in a Lab.
Message me directly to schedule one for your team.
Let’s stop relying on outdated templates, and start getting retirement settlements right.