[manaboutown]

An older attorney I know does a lot of estate planning work. What he told me is he has married couples in their mid seventies to nineties come in wanting estate plans created or modified. Their concern is that their money will end up in the hands of their adult children's spouses because they do not trust that their adult children will remain married. Many of these elderly couples can't stand each other. They speak to each other only as necessary, sleep in separate bedrooms, live in different sections of their houses or in separate houses - yet they remain married. They do realize their children are not the same. They will divorce and move on rather than suffer for years and years through miserable marriages.

It seems to me it is a matter of values and what is important to a person. Of course if a person is happily married no problem - and congratulations!. But if one is not, should one remain in an unhappy, difficult or even abusive marriage or should one untie the knot and move on to a hopefully happier life?