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Comment by foogazi | Hacker News Reader

> This tilt towards later-in-life divorce is happening for a mix of reasons, studies suggest. Lives are longer than they used to be, for a start, and older couples may be less willing to put up with unfulfilling marriages than before.

Makes sense too if you stay together for the kids, then the kids aren’t kids anymore

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I generally agree, but they're focused mostly on 65+ age group. That would make more sense around 45-55 if people are having kids in their 30s.

> I generally agree, but they're focused mostly on 65+ age group

Another aspect possibly driving this: In USA a lot of people get divorced immediately after a cancer (or similar) diagnosis. That way only one of you goes bankrupt and you get to keep half your lifetime savings.

On the contrary, you may get paid out a massive life insurance claim.

You don’t have to be married to be the beneficiary of life insurance policy. I believe you only need a financial interest.

And a divorce will not cancel an existing policy even if it puts you in a position you couldn't get a new one.

That is not happening in any meaningful volume.

A few trends which might be relevant:

  - First-time parenthood is frequently occurring later in life
  - Couples are more often having (additional) children at later ages
  - Children are sometimes not "launching" until later in their 20s.

So, ~35yo first-time parents and/or ~40yo youngest-child parents, plus ~25-30yo children moving out ... That can get you to 65-70 years pretty easily.

Alternately, it might be that the cohort now age 65+ was more likely to divorce than the previous generation at every age throughout their lives, and there were some kind of generational effects involved.

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