Southport Connecticut Family Law Blog

It goes without saying that, as a Connecticut parent, you want what is best for your child. At Reich & Truax, PLLC, we know that that includes a postsecondary education well suited to your child's interests and abilities. As you prepare for divorce proceedings, however, you probably wonder if your child support order will include a provision requiring you to pay for expenses related to your child's postsecondary education. As is often the case with questions related to divorce, the answer depends on several different factors. 

It is certainly possible for a child support order to include provisions for postsecondary education expenses. However, the law limits the amount that the court can order you to pay. It must not exceed the amount it would require for your child to attend the University of Connecticut, including board and room costs as well as in-state tuition. The law applies regardless of what school your child ultimately decides to attend. If costs for your child to go to a different postsecondary institution exceed those required to attend UCONN, you have the option of working out a plan to defray those costs in a privately contracted separation agreement. 

Most assets are simple to split up in a divorce. Securities, bank accounts and even some real estate holdings liquidate and divide in a relatively straightforward way. Of course, not everything fits the mold. Artworks in particular rank as some of the most complicated assets.

Here are some insights into how divorcing couples tend to divide complex, high-value assets in Connecticut and New York. These guidelines should be useful for anyone who holds significant value in unique articles of any kind, especially original works of art.

Couples who are having difficulty conceiving a child in Connecticut may consider in vitro fertilization as an alternative reproduction method. According to the Mayo Clinic, in vitro fertilization involves joining egg and sperm outside the body in a laboratory and then implanting the fertilized embryo into either your uterus or that of a gestational carrier. If all goes well, you or the gestational carrier will carry the child to term and deliver a healthy baby. 

In vitro fertilization may be an option for a number of reproductive issues: 

• Previous sterilization
• Impaired sperm production or function
• Abnormalities of the uterus, such as fibroids or endometriosis
• Ovulation disorder
• Fallopian tube blockage

If you are in your 50s, 60s or even older and are contemplating getting divorced, you are far from alone. Many other couples in Connecticut and around the United States are in this position as the rate of divorces in this age group has grown from five per every 1,000 married persons in 1990 to 10 in every 1,000 spouses by 2010. In total, these gray or silver divorces as they are often called account for roughly 25 percent of all marital dissolutions in the U.S. today.

Psychology Today explains that financial challenges may be one of the contributing factors to a divorce at this stage of life. This is actually opposite what some people might have thought. When a couple gets divorced when they are close to retirement age, the financial realities of this major life change can have serious consequences for them. As assets and debts get split in a divorce, a newly single person might find themselves with less money to live on and less money to retire on. They also have less time left to work to recoup the money they had planned to use for retirement.