When couples filing for divorce have dependent children, their key concerns normally revolve around child custody issues and receiving a fair and equitable division of all marital assets. Of course, spousal support is also a key issue – although it’s now often handled quite differently than it was long ago – when far fewer women were able to thrive in good or even high-paying jobs in the workforce.
In fact today, quite a few men request spousal support from their wives, especially when both parties willingly acknowledge that they weren’t equal breadwinners in the marriage. Sometimes, the men had chosen to shoulder the majority of the child-rearing or other household duties.
Here’s a brief overview of how many of today’s Minnesota couples often address the issue of spousal support or “alimony.”
Common Ways Couples Resolve “Alimony” or Post-Divorce Support Issues
Your Minnesota family law attorney will help you properly evaluate your current and future earnings potential, as well as the size of the overall marital estate while you decide how to approach this issue. If one of you will still be handling most of the child-rearing duties, this will be factored into child-support payment requests – and color separate spousal support decisions. In addition, lengthy marriages often justify demands for more liberal support concessions.
- Some couples decide to execute a Karon waiver. This rigid approach to “alimony” requires the parties to make a permanent decision regarding all future payment amounts and time periods involved. The couple can choose to have the spousal support payments last for either a relatively short or lengthy time period – with a fixed ending date. Be sure to thoroughly discuss this with your lawyer to see if it truly favors your personal circumstances. If both sides are quite secure financially, separate and apart from the marital estate, it might work out well. However, life is rarely static and it’s often to the less financially secure party’s advantage to leave some leeway in how payments are handled – so that a court can later make certain changes. This waiver is named after a well-known Minnesota case entitled, Karon vs. Karon;
- A lump-sum arrangement or “buy-out.” Depending upon how much equity the two parties have in various pieces of marital property, they both may not be willing to commit to lengthy spousal support payments. Instead, one party may allow the other to receive a larger share of the marital property upfront – while keeping in mind and making certain added concessions in light of the special tax concerns the recipient will likely face;
- A limited or partial buy-out arrangement. Similar to the arrangement above, especially when a smaller estate may be involved, the two parties can agree to provide one of them with a small “buyout” payment upfront, coupled with somewhat lower monthly alimony or spousal support payments. Like the second option already referenced above, this one can also be modified in the future, based upon the parties’ preferences;
- One party may be willing to take on a far higher percentage of the couple’s mutual marital debts. While a couple can enter into this type of agreement and also provide for short-term monthly payments, many just simply decide to let one party pay off most or all of the mutual debt to serve as a type of informal buyout of sorts.
Conclusion
Since most couple’s finances vary greatly when divorcing – flexible arrangements can prove quite useful. Understanding these four common approaches to dividing up a marital estate can help you more readily discuss them with your Minnesota family law attorney as you seek a conciliatory end to your divorce.
During recent years, various states have adopted new ways to try and ‘even the playing field’ involved with alimony-type arrangements. While these can be quite positive, women should still seek out special counsel since some states’ approaches to so-called “alimony reform” may not treat them as fairly as justice requires.
Minnesota Spousal Maintenance Lawyers
For more information about the requirements of spousal maintenance and alimony in Minnesota, contact Flanders Law Firm LLC and attorney Joseph M. Flanders at 612-424-0398.
