You built a life together over decades. Now you face untangling it — and the numbers go far beyond a lawyer’s hourly rate. The Cost of a Late Divorce: What It Really Comes To is a blunt, compassionate guide to every dollar, every asset, and every hidden expense that surfaces when a long marriage ends after fifty. From pension splitting and property division to the shock of two households on one retirement fund, Winifred Ashcombe Vellacott walks you through the financial realities most people never see coming: legal fees, tax consequences, health insurance gaps, adult-child tensions around money, and the quiet costs of starting over. This book never tells you whether to leave or stay — it tells you what to ask, what to expect, and how to plan so that one decision does not undo a lifetime of work. Whether you are weighing the choice, already in mediation, or rebuilding alone, you deserve the full picture. Because the real cost is not just in the bank account — it is in the life you are about to remake. Part of The Later-Life Divorce Library.