<<Print>>

The divorce of Amazon.com AMZN, +1.20%  founder Jeff Bezos and his wife of 25 years, writer MacKenzie Bezos, made headlines for its outsize asset split — she walked away with $38 billion. Perhaps more interesting is that despite the huge dollars at stake the Seattle couple managed to amicably part in 120 days.

As a financial adviser I am struck more by the speed of their divorce than the billions. When young couples divorce assets are far easier to divide. Once you’ve built a decadeslong financial life around coupledom things get much more complex.