Collaborative Divorce provides mature couples a more peaceful way to end their marriage without going to court. Divorce guidance from lawyers, financial specialists, and other professionals, can help you and your spouse to make informed decisions about retirement division, property, and your family’s future.
What Is a Grey Divorce?
A grey divorce happens when a couple decides to end their marriage after the age of 50. At this stage in life, your priorities may be different than they were earlier. You might be thinking about retirement, protecting your savings, or how your estate will support your children or grandchildren.
A Team Approach That Works
In a Collaborative Divorce, you and your spouse each have your own lawyer who is trained in the collaborative process. Your lawyers guide you through legal decisions while helping keep the process respectful and focused on your goals. You also have the option of working with a team of trained experts who help manage the emotional and financial sides of your divorce. Your team may include financial advisors, and mental health professionals (who serve as divorce coaches) to assist in managing the emotional or financial aspects of your divorce. Each professional plays a crucial role in helping you reach agreements that align with your values and goals.
Focus on Retirement and Financial Stability
One of the biggest concerns in a grey divorce is the impact on your retirement. You may be asking whether you will need to delay retirement or how your investments will be divided. The neutral financial professional will help answer those questions and provide guidance that fits your situation.
In Collaborative Divorce, you may also review financial models that show what your future income could look like depending on different settlement options. This allows you to make clear and informed decisions about your financial future.
Keep Family Goals in Mind
Even though your marriage is ending, you and your spouse may still care about many of the same things. You might want to protect your nest egg, preserve your estate plan, and avoid creating tension with your children or grandchildren. Collaborative Divorce gives you a chance to talk about those goals and adjust your plans in a way that works for both of you.
A Better Way to Move Forward
Collaborative Divorce helps reduce conflict and keeps the focus on solving problems together. Instead of preparing for court, you and your spouse work with divorce professionals to guide you through the process. This approach makes it easier to separate on better terms. If you have adult children, grandchildren, or shared family traditions, you may both attend birthdays, graduations, weddings, or holiday gatherings. Collaborative Divorce helps you stay respectful with each other, so those important moments are less stressful for everyone.
Contact McNeill Family Law
At McNeill Family Law, we help couples divorce with respect and purpose. If you’re facing the end of your marriage later in life, Collaborative Divorce will give you the tools and support you need to move forward. Call 587-956-9300 or contact us online to schedule a consultation and learn if the Collaborative Divorce process is right for you.
McNeill Family Law is located at #200, 638 11 Ave S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2R
Beryl McNeill is a Calgary divorce lawyer who strongly believes mutual respect and understanding go a long way toward resolving family law matters. As a Registered Collaborative Law practitioner in Calgary, she has dedicated her firm to amicable, cooperative negotiation as a means for settling divorces. Furthermore, throughout her law career, Beryl has seen the costs of adversarial negotiations, both financial and emotional. In emphasizing the collaborative approach, Beryl offers her clients a more efficient model that preserves personal and monetary assets alike.
More and more individuals are attracted to resolving their family law matters in a civil, respectful way. Therefore, they come to Beryl from many walks of life—as professionals in the oil and gas industry and their spouses, business owners, and working spouses with children. Clients say that even after a single consultation with Beryl they feel less stressed and more clear about the way forward.
Beryl understands the often fearful, emotional early stages of divorce. Incorporating skills developed from her training as a life coach, Beryl helps clients move beyond their stress response to more logical, creative thinking. Once there, she works with clients to discover what’s truly important to them in attaining divorce. Furthermore, she encourages clients to picture what a successful settlement would look like a year or more down the road as a means of focusing on their goals. By educating and empowering clients, Beryl seeks to transform the way they resolve family disputes—in a more constructive, intelligent and amicable way than would be possible otherwise.
Finally, Beryl is very active with the Family Bar and the Collaborative Law Community. Her involvement provides her clients with the assurance that she has her finger on the pulse of Family Law in Alberta, offering them a distinct advantage in their quest for equity and civility.