Spousal Support
Sometimes referred to as alimony or spousal maintenance, spousal support is when one spouse pays his or her ex-spouse a set amount of money for a set amount of time during and/or following a divorce. Whether or not you will receive — ;or pay — spousal support depends on multiple factors, including the length of your marriage, the disparity in income between you and your spouse, your spouse’s and your age, your standard of living, the relative health of each spouse (can each spouse work?), ; the education, training and work experience of each spouse, and the assets you will each receive from the division of the marital estate.
Some questions to ask when considering spousal support:
- Is there a discrepancy in your incomes, with either spouse earning significantly more than the other?
- How long were you married? If you have been married for longer than 10 years, you are more likely to be a candidate for receiving or paying spousal support.
- How old are you? How old is your spouse? Most judges are going to look at your earning potential, which is much greater if you’re 40 years old than if you’re 65 years old, when considering spousal support.
- Did one spouse’s contributions to the family help the other spouse earn more money? If one spouse stayed home to care for the children, make the family’s meals and maintain the marital home for a decade while the other spouse worked full-time and earned significantly more money, the spouse that sacrificed his or her career may be entitled to a certain amount of spousal support to help maintain that standard of living.
- How will you divide your marital assets? Sometimes, a spouse will give up a certain percentage of marital assets in lieu of paying spousal support, or for paying a reduced amount of spousal support.
Keep in mind that different states view spousal support through different lenses. It’s important to check with a local expert to get input on what is typical in your area.
“Some states are very formulaic with spousal support,” CPA Roy Nelson says. “They may have a set formula during the separation, so it’s more of a temporary form of alimony.”
Other states see spousal support as a form of rehabilitation, so the lower-income spouse can continue to care for minor children or go back to school to gain new, employable skills. “In some states, they would rather see a short duration of five or six years for spousal support, with a plan to have it end,” Nelson says.
Although not as formulaic as child support payments, the issue of spousal support needs to have some sort of consistency. The reason? In many states, the divorce decrees are subject to judicial review and a judge could throw out the settlement if he or she feels the plan doesn’t provide the correct amount of spousal support, Nelson says.
“So the judge reviews what the couple has agreed to and finds that it isn’t close enough (to the state’s formula for spousal support),” Nelson says. “He could throw it out and the couple would have to go back to the drawing board.” ;
