University & Government Specialist
University retirement, WRS pensions, real estate — Wisconsin's marital property law requires expertise. This guide shows you exactly what you're entitled to.
Leanne Ozaine, CDFA® & CFP® | Specializing in gray divorce for 50+
Turn Panic Into Power — $97If you're over 50 and facing divorce in Madison or Dane County, you're likely dealing with financial complexity unique to Wisconsin's capital and university city. Child custody battles typically aren't your main concern—your children are grown, perhaps UW graduates themselves or building careers elsewhere. Instead, your divorce centers entirely on protecting and dividing decades of accumulated wealth in one of Wisconsin's most educated and prosperous communities.
This is especially challenging if you've never personally managed the family finances. Perhaps your spouse handled the Wisconsin Retirement System pension, University of Wisconsin retirement benefits, Epic Systems stock options and deferred compensation, or state employee healthcare plans while you focused on raising children or supporting their career. Now you're facing questions like:
Why Wisconsin is different: Wisconsin uses a "marital property" framework (similar to community property) that presumes equal division—but courts can deviate based on specific factors. Combined with Madison's unique mix of public sector pensions, academic benefits, and tech industry compensation, your divorce requires specialized understanding.
For 30 years, your spouse handled the Wisconsin Retirement System paperwork. The UW benefits elections. The Epic deferred compensation forms. You raised the family, supported their career, built the life.
Now you're supposed to negotiate a settlement that will determine what you live on for the rest of your life. You're expected to understand WRS hybrid benefits, coverture fractions, and the difference between core and variable funds — in 6 months. While you're still in shock.
The spouse who controlled the money has every advantage. They know every account, every vesting schedule, every benefit election. You're starting from zero — and negotiating as "equals."
Women over 50 face a 45% drop in standard of living after divorce. The gap between men (21% drop) and women isn't random — it's what happens when one spouse knows the money and the other doesn't.
You don't need to become a financial expert overnight. You need someone in your corner who already is one — someone whose only job is making sure you understand what you're signing and what you'll actually live on.
As Wisconsin's capital, Madison is home to tens of thousands of state government employees. The Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) is one of the best-funded and most generous public pension systems in the nation—and creates unique divorce challenges for gray divorce cases.
What makes WRS special: Unlike most states that offer only defined benefit pensions, Wisconsin's hybrid system combines traditional pension benefits with individual account features. Understanding how to value and divide WRS benefits requires specialized knowledge.
WRS pension division essentials:
Critical WRS divorce issues:
Example scenario: Your spouse worked for Wisconsin state government for 28 years, and you were married for 24 of those years. Their WRS account has $450,000 in individual account value plus a projected pension of $3,200/month starting at age 60. The marital portion is 24÷28 = 85.7%. You may be entitled to half of that marital portion—approximately $193,000 of the account value plus $1,371/month in pension benefits. Structuring this division properly through a DRO protects your retirement security.
For those new to managing finances: WRS is more complex than a simple 401(k) because it combines pension-like benefits with account balance features. You need to understand BOTH components to ensure fair division. This is exactly the type of benefit where expert guidance pays for itself many times over.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the nation's premier research universities and Madison's largest employer. UW employment creates distinct retirement and benefit complexities in divorce.
UW retirement benefits complexity:
UW Health physicians and medical school faculty:
Common scenario: Your spouse is a 58-year-old UW professor who chose the Alternative Retirement Plan 30 years ago. They have $650,000 in TIAA accounts, earn $145,000/year, and are approaching retirement eligibility. You supported the family while they completed their PhD and built their academic career. Understanding the marital portion of ARP benefits, negotiating retiree health insurance access, and properly calculating spousal support based on academic income (including summer research funding and consulting) requires specialized expertise.
Research royalties and intellectual property: If your UW faculty spouse has patents, textbook royalties, or other intellectual property developed during marriage, these may be marital property subject to division. Wisconsin courts will examine whether the IP was created using marital resources (time, university facilities) versus purely separate efforts.
For those new to finances: Academic benefits differ significantly from corporate benefits. ARP accounts, sabbatical policies, tenure protections, and research funding all create unique financial planning considerations. Don't assume academic divorce is simple just because the salary might be modest—often there's substantial wealth hidden in retirement accounts built over decades.
Epic Systems, headquartered in Verona just outside Madison, is one of the world's largest healthcare software companies and a major wealth creator in Dane County. Epic's unique compensation structure and campus-focused culture create distinct divorce considerations.
Epic Systems compensation complexity:
Epic-specific divorce challenges:
Common scenario: Your spouse has worked at Epic for 18 years, earns $160,000 base salary plus 25% bonuses, has $850,000 in their 401(k) (thanks to Epic's generous matching and profit sharing), $200,000 in deferred compensation, and unvested equity grants worth potentially $100,000+. You supported their demanding career through long hours and intense project cycles. How do you divide illiquid private company equity? How do you calculate support when bonuses vary annually? What happens if Epic eventually goes public and the equity becomes worth significantly more?
Wisconsin marital property and Epic compensation: Under Wisconsin law, ALL compensation earned during marriage—including bonuses, equity grants, deferred comp, and profit sharing—is marital property subject to division. The key questions are valuation (especially for private equity) and timing (immediate vs. deferred division).
For those new to finances: Tech industry compensation looks very different from traditional employment. Base salary might be modest, but total compensation including bonuses, equity, and retirement contributions can be 50-100% higher. Making sure all components are identified and properly valued is critical—this is where incomplete discovery can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Beyond Epic, Madison has a thriving tech ecosystem fueled by UW research commercialization, biotech companies, software startups, and tech consulting firms. Tech sector divorce creates unique challenges around equity compensation, startup valuations, and variable income.
Madison tech industry divorce considerations:
Startup equity valuation challenges: If your spouse has equity in a pre-IPO Madison startup, valuation becomes extremely complex. Is the company profitable? What's the latest funding round valuation? Are there liquidation preferences that affect common stock value? Wisconsin courts must assign a present value to this illiquid, uncertain asset—and getting this valuation wrong can mean leaving hundreds of thousands (or millions) on the table.
For those new to finances: Tech industry equity isn't like owning shares of Apple or Microsoft. Startup equity is illiquid, uncertain, and often has complex vesting and exercise requirements. Don't let your spouse tell you "the stock options are worthless"—they might be, or they might be worth $500,000 in three years. Proper valuation and strategic division matter enormously.
Madison's near-campus neighborhoods, lakefront properties, and affluent suburbs feature strong real estate appreciation. Your home is likely your largest single asset—and in Wisconsin's marital property system, ALL appreciation during marriage is divisible.
Madison real estate considerations:
Critical Wisconsin difference: If you owned your Madison home before marriage or inherited it, the original value is individual property. BUT—in Wisconsin, ALL appreciation during marriage is marital property subject to division, whether passive (market forces) or active (renovations). This differs from states like Ohio that protect passive appreciation of separate property.
Example scenario: You inherited your grandmother's home in University Heights 25 years ago, valued at $180,000. During your marriage, the home appreciated to $625,000 due purely to Madison's strong real estate market. The $180,000 original value is your individual property—but the $445,000 appreciation is marital property subject to division. Your spouse may be entitled to half of that appreciation ($222,500) even though you inherited the home and never added their name to the title.
Critical decisions:
For those new to finances: The emotional pull of staying in the family home is real—especially if you're deeply connected to Madison's community, UW activities, or established friendships. But financial reality matters too. We help you model whether keeping the house makes sense financially, or whether selling and downsizing preserves more security and flexibility for your future.
Madison's highly educated population includes not just UW faculty but also physicians, attorneys, consultants, and business owners serving the university and state government communities. Professional practice ownership creates complex divorce valuation challenges.
Professional practice considerations:
Wisconsin goodwill rules: Wisconsin courts distinguish between enterprise goodwill (the practice's value independent of the owner—divisible as marital property) and personal goodwill (value tied to the individual's reputation—not divisible). A UW faculty member's consulting practice is likely pure personal goodwill. A multi-physician medical practice with staff, equipment, and patient base has significant enterprise goodwill subject to division.
Common scenario: Your spouse is a 60-year-old physician with ownership in a 6-doctor orthopedic practice. The practice has been valued at $2.4 million total, with your spouse owning 25% ($600,000). How much of that value is enterprise goodwill subject to division versus personal goodwill? How do you structure a buyout so you receive fair value without forcing liquidation of the practice? What's the tax impact of different division strategies?
In Madison and Dane County, we work with clients divorcing after 20, 30, or 40+ years of marriage. Here's what makes gray divorce financially complex in Wisconsin's capital region:
If your spouse has worked in state government, at UW, or in the private sector for 20-30 years, you've likely accumulated wealth through:
Common scenario: Your spouse worked for Wisconsin state government for 27 years. You have a WRS pension worth $3,400/month plus $380,000 in WRS individual account value, a $575,000 home near campus, $225,000 in additional retirement savings, and state employee retiree health insurance worth $12,000/year until Medicare. Under Wisconsin's marital property law, virtually all of this is marital property subject to presumed equal division. How do you divide this fairly while protecting your retirement? What division strategy minimizes taxes? How do you maintain healthcare coverage?
When you're 50, 60, or older, you don't have decades to "start over" financially. Every asset division decision affects whether you can retire comfortably in Madison—or at all.
Critical questions:
The reality: Maintaining a Madison lifestyle post-divorce requires careful planning. Near-campus housing, property taxes, and cost of living have increased significantly. We help you model different scenarios—keeping the house vs. selling, different support amounts, different asset divisions—so you can make informed decisions about your financial future.
Many of our Madison clients—particularly those who focused on homemaking or supporting a spouse's academic or government career—have never personally managed WRS pensions, UW retirement benefits, or Epic compensation packages.
You're not alone: We help you understand what you have, how it works, and how to manage it going forward. WRS benefits, TIAA-CREF accounts, Epic deferred comp, and state employee benefits aren't intuitive, but they're learnable. You don't need to become a financial expert overnight—you just need guidance from someone who understands both the financial products AND the emotional journey of gray divorce.
If you're 50-64 and divorcing, healthcare coverage becomes critical. You're too young for Medicare but may lose coverage through your spouse's employer.
Options to explore:
For state employees and UW retirees: Both state government and UW offer retiree healthcare options—this can be worth $10,000-$15,000/year until Medicare. Make sure this is addressed in your divorce settlement, including whether you can be covered as a former spouse.
As a Madison resident, your divorce follows Wisconsin's marital property laws. This is fundamentally different from most states:
Wisconsin's marital property framework:
Deviation factors (when courts award more than 50/50):
For gray divorce in Madison: If you're 55+ and supported your spouse through their UW PhD program or state government career advancement while you focused on family, Wisconsin's deviation factors may justify more than 50% of marital property—especially if there are significant disparities in future earning capacity.
Learn more about Wisconsin's marital property laws and deviation factors →
Wisconsin courts have broad discretion in awarding spousal support (maintenance). For gray divorce in Madison, support is often critical to maintaining financial stability.
Factors courts consider:
For gray divorce in Madison: If you're 55+ and haven't worked outside the home for 25 years while your spouse built a WRS pension, UW tenure, or Epic career, courts recognize you may never achieve comparable earning capacity. Long-term or indefinite support becomes more likely—especially in marriages of 20+ years with significant income disparity.
We provide virtual divorce financial planning services throughout Madison and Dane County, including:
The 5-step system that shows you what you'll actually live on, so you stop guessing and start knowing.
Calculate your real post-divorce income — including WRS pension benefits, UW retirement, and spousal support — so you negotiate from facts, not fear.
Document gathering checklists tell you exactly what to bring to your attorney — so you walk in prepared, not panicked.
Map out your real expenses as a single person — before you fight for something you can't actually maintain on Madison's cost of living.
The asset identification system helps you find accounts and property you might not even know exist — including state benefits and deferred compensation.
22-page guide + video tutorials + checklists + templates
$97
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Turn Panic Into Power — $97Whether you're learning to manage WRS pension benefits for the first time, navigating UW retirement accounts, or protecting Epic Systems wealth, we provide the education and guidance you need to navigate Madison divorce with confidence.
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