Planning for Children's College Expenses in Your Divorce Settlement

 Posted on July 21, 2015 in College Expenses

Funding a college education for one child or several is a challenging endeavor for most families. Regardless of whether the parents of the children wishing to attend college are married or divorced, the current costs of higher education in the U.S. are daunting to say the least. However, for families that are being managed by divorced co-parents, the finances and logistics of paying for college or university often have an extra level of difficulty. This is particularly true if the divorce occurred when the children were young and no advance provisions were made in the divorce settlement.

Settlement Agreements Often Fail to Include College Expense Planning

Marital settlement agreements can often fail to designate each parent’s financial responsibilities for the children’s advanced education for a variety of reasons. With so many issues to be agreed upon during the divorce process, the added stress of pre-planning a large, but unknown, future expense can be easily relegated to an issue of lesser overall importance at the time. However, if and when the children in question begin the college admissions process, many couples discover that defining their individual responsibilities regarding college tuition and expenses at the time of the divorce settlement would have been a more prudent decision.