Economic well-being after retirement depends on an individual's portfolio which includes income from Social Security, pensions, transfers from public or private sources, and accumulated wealth. Any event which interrupts the savings process can have an adverse effect on an individual's economic status after retirement. Dissolution of marriage, which may affect as many as one-third of all families, is such an event. Marriage dissolution may effect the family's savings rate. Property division rules discourage marital savings if either party anticipates divorce. Because most divorces occur early in the individual's lifetime, the impact on retirement savings can be great. The effect of excluding certain assets from the marital property pool creates differences in the expected rate of return between property subject, and not subject, to division. The rate of return to marital property is uncertain, not only because the asset has risk, but also because there is a chance that the other spouse will own the asset after marriage. Actual divorce involves economic costs which further reduce the couple's wealth through legal fees, loss of the value of the imperfect annuity that marriage represents, and loss of access to valuable property rights. Whether divorce interrupts the savings process or destroys assets, it is unlikely that most individuals will be able to save enough in later life to overcome the loss. The long-term effect may well be that in future years, a new category of elderly poor will be recognized, those who have experienced divorce. (Author/ABL)