Focus on women and divorce: If it’s yours, protect it

A frequent media contributor on the topic of family law notes in a recent article that female spouses working outside the home reportedly earned only about half of the income that their husbands brought home monthly in 1970.

That is, of course, an abysmal finding that speaks loudly to sex-based inequality in the workplace in bygone years.

Assuredly, it is better these days, as evidenced by reams of empirical data and the demonstrated rise of millions of women workers in offices and industries across the country. Notwithstanding improvement, though, it is posited that many working wives today still take home far less than do their working spouses. One estimate holds that men still make about 22% more than their wives do, on average.

For that reason, notes columnist Jeffrey Landers, it is essential that divorcing women take every reasonable step to safeguard their wealth and income in a divorce in Massachusetts or elsewhere.

And Landers take pains to emphasize that doing so can be especially important to women who have greater incomes and/or higher net worth than their husbands do. He notes that paying close attention to money matters and duly protecting assets and income is “a type of insurance policy” that should be “an important part of [every woman’s] financial plan.”

As Landers duly points out, many financially successful women have “devoted years of education, countless long hours of hard work, and many kinds of sacrifice” to build careers and, often, businesses. They logically want — and need — to secure what is rightfully theirs in a divorce.

A purposeful step toward securing that goal is timely consulting with a proven divorce attorney who routinely promotes clients’ objectives in high-asset divorce cases.

Experienced legal counsel can ensure that every reasonable measure is taken to properly identify and safeguard income streams, business interests, various types of property and other assets.

That is a just outcome for any divorcing party who has worked long and hard to build personal wealth.