Alimony

What Is Alimony?

There are three kinds of alimony in the State of Maryland – Pendente Lite Alimony, Rehabilitative Alimony, and Indefinite Alimony.

Pendente Lite Alimony

Pendente Lite Alimony is Alimony paid while the litigation is ongoing and is of a temporary nature.  The Court may make an Alimony Pendente Lite award retroactive to the time the original request was filed with the Court.  The primary consideration by the Court in determining whether to award Alimony Pendente Lite and if so, how much, will be based upon the reasonable needs of the spouse requesting the Alimony Pendente Lite compared against the financial ability of the other spouse to provide the financial support.  The purpose of Alimony Pendente Lite is to “maintain the status quo”.

Rehabilitative Alimony

Rehabilitative Alimony, awarded by the Court or agreed to by the parties during their mediation sessions, is awarded for a specific period of time and is specifically for the purpose of allowing the recipient spouse time to become self-supporting.   For example, if one party would like to go back to school to become a teacher and may need alimony for the period of time they will be going to school to get their degree, they may need Rehabilitative Alimony until they get their degree and become self supporting.

Indefinite Alimony

Indefinite Alimony, awarded by the Court or agreed to by the parties during their mediation sessions, is just that, alimony paid for an indefinite period of time (this is sometimes referred to as permanent alimony) and is awarded when a spouse has made as much progress towards self-support as they can, and the parties respective standards of living will still remain unconscionably disparate.   For example, the parties have been married for a very long time, and one party has never worked and the other party earns a very significant income.  The party who has never worked may very well be entitled to Indefinite Alimony.

Rehabilitative Alimony vs Indefinite Alimony

Sometimes the Court will order a hybrid of both Rehabilitative and Indefinite Alimony.

The Maryland Legislature has enacted a statute the enumerates the factors that the Court is required to consider when determining an Alimony Case (Rehabilitative Alimony or Indefinite Alimony). These factors include but are not limited to:

  • the ability of the parties seeking alimony to be wholly or partly self-supporting;
  • the time necessary for the party seeking alimony to gain sufficient education or training to enable that party to find suitable employment;
  • the standard of living that the parties established during their marriage;
  • the duration of the marriage;
  • the contributions, monetary and non-monetary, of each party to the well-being of the family;
  • the circumstances that contributed to the estrangement of the parties;
  • the age of each party;
  • the physical and mental condition of each party;
  • the ability of the party from whom alimony is sought to meet that party’s needs while meeting the needs of the party seeking alimony;
  • the financial needs and financial resources of each party, including:
    • all income and assets, including all property that does not produce income;
    • any monetary award concerning property and award of possession and use of the family property
    • the nature and amount of the financial obligations of each party; and
    • the right of each party to receive retirement benefits; and
  • whether the award would cause a paying spouse or a spouse who is a resident of a care facility with more than two patients to become eligible for medical assistance earlier than would otherwise occur.

Factors Considered by The Court

The Court is not specifically required to use a checklist and list each factor it used in its decision making, but it must demonstrate that it considered all necessary factors, including any that are not specifically listed in the statutory section of the Family Law Article of the Maryland Annotated Code.  Such “other” factors can be defined as any factor that the court may deem necessary or appropriate to arrive at a fair and equitable award of alimony.

If Alimony (Rehabilitative or Indefinite) is awarded by a Court, it can be modified. If an agreement is reached in mediation, the parties can agree that the alimony paid by one spouse cannot be modified.

    There are new tax laws that will significantly affect the rules of alimony. Time is of the essence to resolve your alimony claims in 2018 in order to preserve the deductibility of alimony for the future.

    Agreements reached before 2019 that include deductible Alimony will be honored as tax deductible.  The new tax law which is effective in 2019 will no longer allow the deductibility of Alimony and the Alimony recipient will no longer be required to pay taxes on the Alimony received.

    Alimony automatically terminates upon the death of the payor or the payee.

    While Child Support in Maryland is calculated by a mathematical formula, Alimony is not.  However, the Women’s Law Center in conjunction with The Bruce A. Kaufman Center for Family Law has developed an Alimony algorithm formula which is widely used as a guideline for gauging alimony.  Unfortunately, the “Kaufman Guidelines” as they are commonly known use only the following factors:

    • length of the marriage
    • age of the claimant
    • education of the claimant
    • earnings (or potential earnings) of the claimant
    • income of the parties
    • child care responsibilities