According to newly released data from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research, the divorce rate for couples in New York and across the United States that are older than 50 has doubled in the last 20 years, despite a two-decade national trend of decreasing divorce rates. Experts have coined the phenomenon "grey divorce," explaining that such splits may soon become commonplace.

While every divorce case is complex and unique, experts have hypothesized that the growing rate of grey divorces is caused by major life changes. In many instances, one spouse feels like the other spouse has changed in the years since their marriage.

If one or both parties are unwilling or unable to adapt to the change, divorce represents an obvious and effective solution. In some cases, a couple will consider divorce for several years, but only take the step after any children have left the home.

Experts say divorcing after 20 or 30 years of marriage can be both easier and more difficult than a more conventional split. Divorcing baby boomers typically have grown children, meaning things like child support and custody are less likely to be issues in court. However, a couple that has been married for several decades can face problems that are less commonly seen in typical divorce cases. Such couples generally have more assets to divide, and may have difficulty adjusting to a new life after being married for so long.

Divorces that are filed due to infidelity or other similar issues are often particularly hard for baby boomers, as the length of the marriage can make a betrayal seem especially profound.

It's important to remember that there are other options out there, such as mediation or collaborative divorce, that can be preferable to letting a divorce case play out in court. For couples who simply want to move on, those may be the best options.

Source: Huffington Post, "Is Grey Divorce A New Baby Boomer Rite Of Passage?," Lisa Helfend Meyer, Dec. 16, 2011