Is Lump Sum Alimony An Effective Barrier Against Divorce Drama?

Alimony is such a sensitive subject that there are numerous people out there holding grudges not only about the alimony in their own divorce cases but also about the alimony in other people’s divorce cases.  Having to send a check to your spouse every month can feel like repeatedly reopening the wound of your divorce.  Likewise, it is hard to move on when your ability to pay your bills depends on whether an alimony check arrived on time.  The good news is that, as long as they are still young enough to work at the time of the divorce, alimony lasts only a few years.  In the foreseeable future, you and your ex-spouse will eventually become independent of each other.  Unless the parties were married for at least 17 years, the duration of alimony cannot exceed the duration of the marriage, and usually it is much shorter.  Sometimes it is just a one-time payment, known as lump sum alimony.  Is fulfilling all of your alimony obligations in a single installment the best way to avoid the drama of alimony?  Drama can follow you around, no matter what the details of your divorce are.  The best defense against it is a Boca Raton alimony lawyer.

How Is Alimony Different From Other Types of Alimony?

Lump sum alimony, also known as in solido alimony is when one spouse pays the other a single payment of a large sum of money at the time the divorce becomes final or shortly thereafter.  The purpose of in solido alimony is to compensate the recipient spouse for his or her share of valuable marital assets that the paying spouse kept.  It is a matter of semantics whether in solido alimony is alimony or just part of the division of marital property that necessarily accompanies a divorce.

In addition to lump sum alimony, Florida law recognizes five other kinds of alimony.  These are pendente lite alimony, bridge the gap alimony, rehabilitative alimony, durational alimony, and permanent alimony.  What they all have in common with each other is that, in contrast to lump sum alimony, they are all paid in monthly, biweekly, or weekly installments.  Despite the hype that you read online, most alimony agreements arise from mediation, not from a judge’s unilateral decision to order one spouse to support the other financially.

What Happens If You Can’t Come Up With a Six-Figure Sum of Money All at Once?

The good news about lump sum alimony is that, after a single payment, you and your ex-spouse are officially financially disentangled from each other.  The bad news is that the amount is usually tens of thousands of dollars, or even more.  Some people take out loans to satisfy their lump sum alimony obligations.  For them, paying a payment to a bank every month is easier than making monthly payments to an ex-spouse.

Contact Schwartz | White About Lump Sum Alimony

A South Florida family law attorney can help you protect yourself from excessively burdensome alimony obligations.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

miaminewtimes.com/news/jason-taylors-ex-wife-katina-sues-over-34-million-in-alimony-9551674