Spousal Maintenance

What is Spousal Maintenance in Minnesota?

Spousal Maintenance, formerly called alimony, is the award in a divorce or legal separation of payments from the future income or earnings of one spouse for the support of the other spouse.

Spousal maintenance can be temporary or permanent. Temporary or rehabilitative maintenance is ordered for a definite period of time. It allows the spouse receiving spousal maintenance to establish or reestablish their earning potential through enrolling in or finishing school or returning to the workforce. Permanent maintenance is ordered for an indefinite period of time and usually follows longer marriages where the ability of the other spouse to enter or return to the workforce is uncertain. Suppose there is any uncertainty as to whether temporary or permanent spousal maintenance should be ordered. In that case, the court must order permanent maintenance.

How is Spousal Maintenance determined in Minnesota?

Like child custody determinations, the court is guided by several factors when considering a request for spousal maintenance. The factors include:

• the financial resources of the spouse seeking maintenance, including the spouse’s ability to meet their needs independently;
• the time necessary for the spouse to become self-supporting;
• the marital standard of living;
• the length of the marriage;
• the loss of employment benefits and other work opportunities by the spouse seeking maintenance;
• the age, physical condition, and emotional condition of the spouse seeking maintenance;
• the ability of the spouse from whom maintenance is sought to meet the needs of both persons; and
• the contribution of each spouse in the accumulation of property during the marriage. No single factor is controlling, and each case must be determined on its own facts. Marital misconduct (adultery, abuse, etc.) cannot be considered by the court.