Divorce costs up to £138,000 in wealth, with women suffering the most – new research

Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management urges clients to seek advice on the financial impact of marriage breakdowns

Married people are up to £138,000 better off than divorced people, with divorced women the worst hit by the impact of marriage breakdown on wealth, new analysis* from Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management shows.

Its analysis of Government data estimates the average wealth of affluent married individuals at more than £791,000 compared with around £653,000 for divorced individuals – a wealth gap of 18% or £138,000, with women the biggest losers from break-ups.

Divorced women are 19% worse off than married female individuals, while divorced men are just 14% worse off than their married counterparts, Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management estimates. The wealth gap for divorced women to married women is around £153,000 compared with £113,000 for men. Divorced men are even better off to the tune of £46,600, compared with divorced women.

Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management’s analysis of Government data on the wealth of affluent people – those with household net financial wealth of more than £200,000 – shows the number of affluent divorced individuals has risen sharply over the past two years, from 1.369 million to 1.436 million.

Most of the rise is down to more affluent divorced women – they accounted for 931,070 or nearly two-thirds of the total number of affluent divorced people. But it is divorced men who are more affluent, with an average wealth of £681,730, compared with £635,000 for women.

However, divorcees in general are wealthier than they were just two years ago, with total wealth of £937.8 billion – up 8.7% –, while the average wealth of affluent individuals is up 1.2% at £576,610.

Christine Ross, Head of Private Office (North) and Client Director at Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management said: “Divorce, no matter how amicable, has a major impact on people’s lives and their long-term average wealth – engendering a £138,000 gap between married individuals and divorced people.

“The impact is worse for divorced women compared with married women and divorced men, but there is some positive news in that divorced people are generally becoming wealthier. This could be down to more people taking advice from someone independent who can help them find a financial solution which works for both parties.”

Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management’s analysis shows the number of affluent individuals has increased over the past two years by nearly 630,000, taking the total of individuals with total household wealth of more than £200,000 to around 37.7 million in the UK.

The increase is fairly evenly split between men and women, with the number of women at nearly 319,000 – slightly ahead of men at just over 310,000.