You Can Never Be Too Specific in a Marital Settlement Agreement
Financial decisions within marriage are private. Think about the married couples you know, and how little you know about their finances. Behind the power couples with their fancy cars and their apparently endless resources to devote to socializing are the things you do not see, the home equity lines of credit, the trust funds that are about to run out, and the bitter feelings that each spouse harbors toward the other spouse’s financial habits. When you get divorced, your financial situation becomes the court’s business. Every divorce case, even the simplest ones, requires thorough and accurate financial disclosures. Despite this, most divorce cases resolve with a marital settlement agreement (MSA) finalized by the spouses during divorce mediation, rather than with a ruling by a judge. To finalize the divorce, the court signs off on the MSA, but the judge does not have a say about its provisions. An MSA is a legally binding contract between individuals. Post-divorce actions by couples with MSAs can be petitions to enforce the MSA, to amend its terms, or to declare it legally invalid. It is a contract which the court has the right to interpret when asked to rule on a dispute arising from it. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the MSA unambiguously says what you want it to say. For help drafting an MSA that prevents future conflicts, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Court Rules That Ex-Husband Can Modify Alimony but Cannot Require Ex-Wife to Return to Work
A Manatee County couple divorced in 2012. The wife quit her full-time job as a retail store manager in 1994, when the parties’ oldest child was born. She had occasionally worked part-time after that, but her most recent employment had been in 200. She testified at a hearing related to a post-divorce action that she had no intention of returning to the workforce, even though her health did not prevent her from working; she had simply committed to being a stay-at-home parent. The MSA stipulated that the husband would pay the wife $4,500 per month in alimony for eight years; when the eight years ended, the former wife would be eligible for Social Security.
The husband lost his job and petitioned the court to modify the alimony amount. It did so, but it calculated the new amount by imputing income to the wife, that is, on assuming that she would return to work and calculating how much she would still need after figuring in her hypothetical employment income. The parties disagreed about whether the court was within its rights to impute income to the wife, since the MSA did not say anything about whether she would return to work. The family courts often impute income to able-bodied former spouses under the age of 65, because they would prefer to have the former spouses work than have them rely on public assistance.
Contact Schwartz | White About Getting Divorced for Better or for Worse
A South Florida family law attorney can help you if your financial situation got worse after your divorce became final. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13031434492528011547&q=divorce+navy&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025
