When people encounter the end of their marriage and they are ready to move on with their lives, the obvious next step is to pursue a divorce.  However, most people have heard the horror stories regarding how a litigated divorce can all but exhaust the assets that a married couple has spent years working for and accumulating.  As such, many people hesitate to take this difficult step for fear of watching their work disappear.

For more than a year now we’ve heard that the divorce rate in the United States is down, and one of the main reasons or explanations offered for that drop is because of the current recession and people’s inability to afford going through this process.  However, a recent study performed by researchers at the University of Missouri tends to contradict what is emerging as a quasi societal norm.