Divorce can be financially devastating for spouses who put their careers on the back burner during their marriage and never went back to them. If you’re considering or preparing for divorce after years of raising kids and dealing with household and other responsibilities while your spouse built a successful career or business, you may be feeling some fear about what lies ahead for you. That may be particularly true if you’re in your 40s or older.
That’s where the right spousal support (alimony) agreement can make all the difference. While New Jersey doesn’t technically have “permanent” alimony, it does have an “open durational” option in addition to limited duration and rehabilitative alimony for when one spouse needs temporary financial assistance from the other while they get the skills, education and/or experience to become self-supporting.
Of course, “self-supporting” may be a far cry from the standard of living you’ve had during your marriage. Do you have a right to seek alimony that will allow you to maintain a standard of living close to what you’ve had during the marriage thanks to your spouse’s success?
What does New Jersey law say?
Under New Jersey law, one factor that courts can consider in granting alimony is the “standard of living established in the marriage or civil union and the likelihood that each party can maintain a reasonably comparable standard of living, with neither party having a greater entitlement to that standard of living than the other.”
If your spouse can continue to maintain their marital standard of living while providing enough support for you to do the same (particularly if you can’t do it on your own), a strong case can be made for support payments (and/or a property division agreement) that will do that.
Building a case
It’s important to be able to make a strong case – especially if your soon-to-be ex is prepared to fight it. Since that could involve potentially trying to hide assets, it’s crucial to get a full and accurate picture of their finances. That may necessitate finding hidden assets.
It should be noted that some spouses find out only as they divorce that their comfortable lifestyle was built on a mountain of debt or even fraud and other criminal activity. Assuming that’s not your situation, with experienced legal guidance, you can build a solid case for alimony that will allow you to maintain the standard of living to which you helped contribute during your marriage.
