There are key differences between separation and divorce. The most basic and obvious distinction is that you remain married during a legal separation, and in a divorce, your marriage is dissolved. Other differences include:
- Legal separation allows for the retention of health care and other benefits, including certain social security benefits that terminate with a divorce.
- Legal separation allows you to retain your marital status, meaning that you're not free to marry another; once you're divorced, you can remarry.
- Spouses are still considered next of kin and can still make medical or financial decisions for the other; divorced spouses aren't considered next of kin.
- Spouses may still be responsible for the debt of the other in a legal separation, unlike a divorce where the debts are handled during the dissolution process.
- Legal separation preserves each spouse's legal rights to property benefits upon the death of the other, but a divorce extinguishes these rights.
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