Modifying Your Alimony Obligations After You Retire
Florida no longer has permanent alimony, but a substantial portion of the people who pay and receive alimony are above the age of 60. The new trend is toward gray divorce, where people over 50 divorce after 20 years or more of marriage. If the parties had unequal incomes, this can mean that one spouse is paying alimony beyond the age of alimony. One aspect of Florida’s alimony law reform is that a former spouse who pays durational alimony is automatically entitled to have the court reduce the amount of his or her monthly alimony obligations upon retirement. In practice, this usually means that both parties downgrade their lifestyles. Two people who no longer live together or treat each other as family sharing a single retirement pension is an unglamorous way to spend your life, but it is better than the old system, where your ex-spouse could theoretically persuade the court that you must work until you drop, just to satisfy an alimony obligation that the court had decided years earlier, when your financial circumstances were better. If you are getting too old to work, but you still owe alimony obligation, and you want to retire with peace of mind, contact a Boca Raton alimony lawyer.
Retired Firefighter Petitions Court to Reduce His Alimony Amount, Since His Ex-Wife Gets a Share of His Retirement Pension
A firefighter named Anthony finalized his divorce from his wife at the end of 2014; they reached a settlement in mediation, where one of the provisions was that he would pay $1,250 per month in durational alimony. The parties were married for 12 years, but the appeals court’s later decision did not indicate how long the duration of his alimony would be. Even under the laws that were in place at that time, the parties would not have been eligible for permanent alimony, because they were married for less than 17 years.
Anthony had been applying for retirement since before he filed for divorce; because of his age and health, his performance on the required physical fitness tests at his job was consistently poor. His employer approved his request for retirement in January 2015, the month after his divorce became final. Almost immediately, he asked the court to reduce the amount of his monthly alimony obligation. Pursuant to a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), Anthony’s employer would automatically send a portion of his retirement pension to his ex-wife each month. Therefore, he petitioned the court to set his alimony obligation at the difference between $1,250 and the amount his ex-wife received from the pension. The court decision did not indicate whether his ex-wife would continue to receive payments from the QDRO after the alimony payments ended.
Contact Schwartz | White About Alimony Obligations After Retirement
A South Florida family law attorney can help you if your divorce has upended your retirement plans, and you need a property division agreement that will enable you to retire at a reasonable retirement age. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2584627850406948720&q=divorce+fire&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025
