Rise of ‘gray’ divorce is forcing a financial reckoning after 50

For some, it means liberation. For others, loss. For women in particular, the doubling of the divorce rate for the 50-plus crowd since the 1990s can mean something far more prosaic: a need to shoulder the big financial decisions they’d let their spouses deal with when they were married.

Often, they find some nasty surprises after he’s gone.

A majority of married women-56 percentstill leave major investing and financial planning decisions to their spouse, according to a report, “Own Your Worth,” released Friday by UBS Global Wealth Management. It’s not just older women slipping into the more traditional gender roles of their parents: 61 percent of millennial women said they leave investment decisions to their husbands. That compares with 54 percent for baby boomer women. UBS surveyed more than 600 women who have either been divorced or widowed within the last five years, and 1,500 couples. Respondents had to have at least $250,000 in investable assets.

The difference in attitudes toward making major financial decisions between married women, and women who were divorced or widowed, is stark. Fifty-nine percent of widows and divorcees regret not taking part in long-term financial planning when they were a couple. Eightyfive percent of married women who weren’t active in making longterm financial decisions said their spouse knows more about financial issues than they do.

Eighty percent of women said they were content with how financial responsibilities were split in their marriage.

“Despite all the strides that women have made, they are still abdicating important financial decisions that will profoundly affect their future,” said Paula Polito, chief strategy officer for UBS Global Wealth Management, in an email.