Divorce financial companies like CPA firms and accountants, too, are being flooded with new clients, and many are losing money.
A new survey by the firm McKinsey & Co. suggests that the divorce market is the second-most-fraught financial sector in the U.S. after healthcare.
And the average number of divorce filings is increasing, as couples try to navigate an increasingly complicated legal landscape, the survey said.
The study, based on responses from more than 1,000 financial professionals, said that in the past five years, divorce filings increased nearly 50% nationwide.
The rise was fueled by rising divorce rates, and a sharp increase in the number of divorces involving children, according to McKinsey.
The median number of filings for a new divorce was 2.9 in 2015, up from 1.7 in 2016, McKinsey said.
The median filing for a divorce between spouses increased by about 8% in 2017, to 6,742.
The average number filing for divorce between parents rose by about 13% in the same period, to 7,064.
Criminal and civil litigation in divorce filings rose sharply last year, as well, according the survey.
It said that the number filing criminal cases rose by 9% in 2016 to 10,834.
The number filing civil cases increased by 5% in that year to 13,973.
The increase was largely driven by the rise in domestic violence cases.
The survey found that about one-third of divorce settlements were in the form of settlement agreements.
McKinsey’s survey of more than 3,000 U.N. and domestic violence experts found that most of the increase in filings has come from criminal or civil cases.
But the survey also found that more than a third of divorce settlement settlements were based on “other” reasons, such as family problems or financial problems.
