The end of a long term marriage

It was recently announced that former Vice President (and presidential candidate) Al Gore and his wife of 40 years, Tipper Gore,are going to divorce. According to this article, there is no specific reason for their divorce. They simply drifted apart over the years.

There is no doubt that, over the course of 40 years, they have probably acquired a fair amount of “stuff” that needs to be divided as part of a divorce action. Real estate, bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement benefits, and personal property must be valued and divided between them. In theory, that would include Al’s Academy Award for “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Earning capacities may need to be ascertained in order to determined. How much are either of the Gores earning on the talk-show circuit these days? Are either of them being asked to speak at graduations or commencements? Are either being asked to speak at conferences on environmental or free speech issues?

One thing that some people over look is what happens to Social Security benefits when a couple divorces. For most people, as they worked, they contributed to Social Security. Regardless of how much a person earned, if taxes were withheld from a person’s pay (with the exception of some specific employers), that person was contributing to Social Security. When that person reached retirement age (traditionally considered 65 years old), that person would begin collecting a monthly check from the Social Security Administration based on the amount of money the person contributed to the plan over the years.

If a couple has been married at least 10 years (and the Gores were married for 4x that time), when the income inferior spouse (probably Tipper in this case) is ready to collect Social Security (she turns 61 later this year), she will have 2 choices. She can elect to collect social security based on how much she contributed over the years or she can elect to receive 50% of the value of what her husband would collect based on his contributions. She can not collect both. She would get the higher of the two. Al would still get the full amount of his Social Security benefits. The amount what Tipper would collect would be equal to 1/2 of the value of his.

I only know of one case in twenty years of practice where a spouse waived the right to collect the higher amount of Social Security. I do not know if such a waiver can be enforced.