Cohabiting Before Marriage

Cohabiting before marriage may be the “kiss of death”—or divorce. What are the odds that you’d be in this relationship if you weren’t living together? The more you get to know your possible future spouse before you live together, the better chance you have of breaking up with the wrong person and finding the right […]

Is Your Significant Other A Stranger?

How well do you really know your significant other? According to a recent poll in the Wall Street Journal, more people are employing private investigators to check the backgrounds of their fiancé before their tie the knot. “Investigators across the nation say business has boomed in recent years from clients who want their sweethearts investigated […]

Declining Divorce Rate

Even though you continue to read about the rising divorce rate, the divorce surge is over—it is no longer true that the divorce rate is rising, or that half of all marriages end in divorce. Actually, this has been true for some time. Marriages in the United States are stronger than they have ever been. […]

Financial Security or Marriage?

Though marriage was once a steppingstone to economic stability, young adults now see financial stability as a prerequisite for marriage. According to a recent Pew survey, more than a quarter of those who say they want to marry someday, say they haven’t because they are not financially secure. If you go back a generation or […]

Summer Love

Summertime is ripe for romance—but can a fleeting fling last? According to Facebook, users change their status to “single” during the summer. The summer lends itself to lots of activities and more opportunities to meet people. Weekends can be filled with barbeques, cocktail parties and weddings. People’s enthusiasm to get out and do things in […]

Consequences of Grey Divorce

The divorce rate in the United States among people 50 or older has doubled since 1990, according to a study by the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. And as the American population steadily ages, grey divorces will keep rising. By 2030 it is estimated that 800,000 […]

Family Estate Planning

Few people plan to die young—and almost everyone assumes they will live a relatively long time. Nothing brings reality into sharper focus than hearing about a family who suffers financially as a result of poor financial or estate planning. The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2014, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, brings this […]

Senior Love

Often after the death of a spouse or a divorce, seniors find themselves in love again. But is marriage necessary? For financial reasons, many older couples make the decision to live together, but not get married. A partner who remarries stands to lose social security or a survivor’s pension. She (or he) may also lose […]