Spousal Maintenance
Court-ordered payments from one spouse to the other after a divorce to help with living expenses, sometimes called alimony.
Spousal maintenance is money that one spouse pays to the other after a divorce. In Minnesota, the court may order maintenance when one spouse needs financial support and the other spouse has the ability to pay. The purpose is to help the lower-earning spouse maintain a reasonable standard of living after the marriage ends.
The court looks at several factors when deciding maintenance, including how long the marriage lasted, each spouse’s income and earning ability, the standard of living during the marriage, and each spouse’s age and health. Maintenance can be temporary (to give a spouse time to become self-supporting) or permanent (in longer marriages where one spouse is unlikely to become fully self-supporting).
Why it matters: Spousal maintenance can be a significant monthly obligation or a critical source of income. Either spouse can ask the court to modify maintenance later if there is a substantial change in circumstances, such as job loss or retirement.
Example: After a 20-year marriage where one spouse stayed home to raise the children, the court orders the higher-earning spouse to pay $1,500 per month in spousal maintenance for 10 years.
Divorce proceedings, dissolution cases, post-divorce financial disputes