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Modified on
Aug 01, 2025
The assets that people acquire during a marriage can have a direct impact on their financial comfort and stability for the rest of their lives. Retirement savings, for example, help professionals plan for the years when they no longer work in full-time professions and have to live on a fixed income.
People may contribute regularly to a 401(k) or similar retirement savings account to establish a nest egg for later in life. Those savings can be vulnerable in the event of a divorce. Particularly when people divorce after multiple years of marriage and well into a successful career, one of their main goals in the divorce might be to preserve their retirement resources.
What are some of the strategies that can help people retain as much as they can of their retirement savings when they divorce?
Showing some savings are separate property
Occasionally, people start their marriages with prenuptial agreements. They may have already established that certain assets, including individual retirement accounts, are the separate property of each spouse. Others may not have contractual agreements with their spouses, but at least some of their retirement savings might still be separate property. The timing of contributions is generally what determines if retirement savings are separate or marital property. Deposits that people made prior to getting married could remain their separate property when they divorce. However, contributions from during the marriage are often subject to division.
