The prospect of divorce can be frightening for spouses whose marital standard of living is largely dependent on the income and other assets of their husband or wife. Maybe their own career isn’t as lucrative as their spouse’s. Perhaps they’ve given up their career to care for the children, manage the home and attend to social obligations.
They may feel fairly confident that they can get enough alimony to pay the bills – at least until they can become self-supporting. However, if they’ve become accustomed to a very comfortable lifestyle over many years or decades, do they have a right to seek enough spousal support to allow them to continue in that lifestyle?
If divorcing spouses can’t agree on the amount of alimony themselves, with the guidance of their attorneys, a judge will have to decide based on the law and each side’s arguments. Under Florida law, a judge can consider numerous factors, including:
- Duration of the marriage
- Income (as well as earning potential) and assets of each spouse
- Both spouses’ ages and health
- Both spouses’ contributions to the marriage, “including, but not limited to, services rendered in homemaking, child care, education, and career building of the other party.”
Among these factors is the “standard of living established during the marriage….”
The spouse seeking enough alimony to maintain something close to their marital standard of living will likely need to make a strong case that they deserve it based on their contributions to their husband’s or wife’s success, their inability to maintain it on their own and the other party’s ability to pay the amount of alimony sought while maintaining a comparable standard of living themselves.
By partnering with an experienced legal professional as early as possible, spouses seeking to maintain their marital standard of living through alimony, as well as the property distribution settlement, can improve their chances of prevailing.