Divorcing poorly DH

[redkite27]

After some advice for my best DF please. She would like to divorce her DH. They have been married for a long time but never really been happy and he has been emotionally and verbally abusive in the past and now her children have grown up she would like to divorce him. The issue is that he has a degenerative long term disease and so clearly getting more and more unwell. My DF has a lot of money that she has made from her own business.
Does anyone have any advice for her? Will a judge make her give him a lot of money in the split or pay support for him going forwards because he is ill and clearly can’t work. Will it influence the financial decisions in their divorce? She is happy to give him their current house.

i should think the split will be 50/50 as a starting point although there is a good chance he will receive more due to his inability to work.

You said she has offered him the house - what percentage of the total assets is the house and has he accepted her offer?

She really needs to see a solicitor to get advice on where she would stand legally re finances if she decides to go ahead with a divorce.

Thank you. She hasn’t offered it yet, just willing to and is trying to get all her ducks in a row/make a plan before discussing with him. It makes sense that he will need to be supported longer term because of the illness. The house would only be a small percentage 20% ish of total wealth/ assets.

Yup that’s what I have said. Wonder if there are solicitors who specialise in divorcing someone with a long term illness. It’s a balance between doing the right thing for him (making sure the kids see their father being taken care of) and protecting what she has worked so hard to build.

If she is in the UK The Law Society give advice on finding solicitors, including finding those with specialist areas of expertise.

I don't for one minute imagine he'll accept 20% of the assets! She's dreaming!
I expect he's in line for 60 or even 70% plus she may well have to pay spousal support.

She doesn't really need a solicitor who specialises in long term illnes. most solicitors will have had experience dealing with this, it's not uncommon.

In her shoes my initital offer would be 50% plus spousal for 8-10 years. I'd offer that and take it from there.

If he is unwell and unable to work then yes this will influence the asset split.

she needs a lawyer.

This is part of my worry, but I think it’s a really sensible starting point.

how old are they

She is mid 40’s and he is almost 60

In that case, I'd only be offering spousal support up until retirement age. (his)

Does it make any difference that his family has a lot of money? Is spousal support still required?

What family? Family he’ll inherit from?

No, not parents.