Aydogan Ulker analyses the role of the elderly couples' past marital history in determining their current wealth holdings and portfolio allocation using data from the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study. The results suggest that, while the net cost of divorce in terms of household wealth accumulation is higher for men than it is for women, in the 'long run' it turns out to be statistically insignificant for both gender groups. However, the results also show that both the probability of owning a particular asset and the fraction of net worth allocated to that asset might significantly vary depending on the elderly couples' marital experience.