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Alimony for Him

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Score another win for the women’s rights movement, but I’m guessing it’s not a win women will celebrate. In a surprise twist in the age of #equalpay, more women in divorce are having to pay alimony to their ex-husbands.

Hear Me Roar!

As MarketWatch reports, an increasing number of women are paying alimony and child support when their marriages break up, according to a recent survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Some 54% of the attorneys surveyed have seen an increase in women paying child support in the last three years, and 45% noticed an uptick in women paying alimony.

Despite complaints about the women’s pay gap, the trend of women paying alimony is being seen as a sign of women’s growing earning power. But experience is also showing that having to pay a man alimony is a bitter pill to swallow for women.

Florida Alimony

I’ve written about alimony, and alimony reform in Florida, many times. In every dissolution of marriage case, the court can grant alimony to either party – husband or wife.

Not many people realize there are several types of alimony in Florida: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent alimony.

Florida courts can also award a combination of alimony types in a divorce. Alimony awards are normally paid in periodic payments, but sometimes the payments can be in a lump sum or both lump sum and periodic payments.

In determining whether to award alimony or not, the court has to first make a determination as to whether a wife or a husband, has an actual need for alimony, and whether the other party has the ability to pay alimony.

Once a court determines there is a need and ability to pay alimony, it has to decide the proper type and amount of alimony. In doing so, the court considers several factors, some of which can include:

  • The standard of living established during the marriage.
  • The duration of the marriage.
  • The age and the physical and emotional condition of each party.
  • The financial resources of each party, including the nonmarital and the marital assets and liabilities distributed to each.
  • The earning capacities, educational levels, vocational skills, and employability of the parties and, when applicable, the time necessary for either party to acquire sufficient education or training to enable such party to find appropriate.

But, the gender of the recipient is not a statutory basis for granting or denying alimony. Courts are supposed to be blind to gender in alimony awards.

The Future is Female!

Many women, no matter how educated, how professional, how modern they are, are surprised to learn that they might have to pay alimony. In the past, maybe mom was a kindergarten teacher and dad was working on Wall Street. For example:

  • In 1960, just 11% of households with children under 18 had mothers who were the breadwinner.
  • In 2013, moms were the primary provider in a record 40% of families, a 2013 Pew Research Center report found.
  • Some 31.4% of single dads who have custody of their kids received spousal support in 2016, and 52.3% of moms did.

The average amount of child support was $5,774 per year, or about $329 a month, but only 68.5% of that money was actually received, according to Census data.

Equality Includes Both Genders!

Paying alimony is something Sarah Gilbert never thought she would have to do, but the 44-year-old mom of three boys now sends $349 a month to her ex-husband. The Portland, Ore. resident says the experience has made her never want to get married again, even though she’s now in a happy relationship.

Her husband was a stockbroker when they first met, then he left the financial world to join the U.S. Army. After the military, he struggled to find work and was unemployed when they split. She was shocked when a judge gave her ex-husband primary custody and ordered Gilbert to pay monthly support.

The jaw dropped out of my mouth. I literally could not believe it. Had I been working a corporate job, I would have expected to pay spousal support to him, but I was a tour guide.

As a defense to paying alimony, working women going through a divorce will sometimes argue that their husbands are underemployed and could have earned much more than if he worked harder.

But the reality is, if during the course of the marriage, you and your husband agreed he’d earn less, work less, and you took on the role of the primary breadwinner, you’re going to pay that support.

The MarketWatch article is here.

 

Alimony and The Parent Trap

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Actor Dennis Quaid and his former wife Kimberly Buffington-Quaid are Breaking Away and are officially divorced. However, reports show that the multi-millionaire actor may not be paying alimony to his former Enemy Mine. Why not?

The Big Easy

According to People, Buffington-Quaid, who filed for divorce in 2016, will receive $2 million in a lump sum payment, another million for property settlements, and $13,750 a month in child support.

According to further reports, her child support payment could increase if Quaid pulls in more than $1.3 million in a year. However, there are no reports that he is paying alimony, other than the cryptic reference to a “lump sum payment”.

The Quaids case may be one in which alimony is not needed.

Florida Alimony

I’ve written about alimony and alimony reform in Florida often. In every dissolution of marriage case, the court can grant alimony to either party – husband or wife.

There are several types of alimony in Florida: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent alimony. The court can also award a combination of alimony types.

Alimony awards are normally paid in periodic payments, but sometimes the payments of alimony can be in a lump sum or both lump sum and periodic payments.

In determining whether to award alimony or not, the court has to first make a determination as to whether a party, like Buffington-Quaid, has an actual need for alimony, and whether the other party has the ability to pay alimony.

Once a court determines there is a need and ability to pay alimony, it has to decide the proper type and amount of alimony. In doing so, the court considers several factors, some of which can include:

  • The standard of living established during the marriage.
  • The duration of the marriage.
  • The age and the physical and emotional condition of each party.
  • The financial resources of each party, including the nonmarital and the marital assets and liabilities distributed to each.
  • The earning capacities, educational levels, vocational skills, and employability of the parties and, when applicable, the time necessary for either party to acquire sufficient education or training to enable such party to find appropriate employment.

In the Quaid case, Buffington-Quaid seems to have been awarded a very handsome property settlement, in addition to over $13,000 per month in child support payments.

The Right Stuff

While the Quaids are sharing joint physical custody of their children, Buffington-Quaid was awarded 75% of their time.

From Quaid’s Vantage Point, he made out ok, and is reportedly keeping most of the cars — a 2007 Land Rover, 2012 Mercedes and 2013 Honda.

His ex-wife will also have Something to Talk About, she will keep her 2014 Mercedes. Additionally, the actor will keep their home in Austin, Texas, and they’ll split the sale price of their family home.

The People article is here.

 

New Alimony Penalty

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

The GOP proposed tax plan has something for everyone. Including a huge surprise for divorcing couples: a tax penalty for divorce. The new law may dramatically change how we treat alimony for taxes, and whether your case will settle.

As Business Insider reports, the tax bill released last week could drastically change the tax treatment of alimony. Currently, alimony is tax-deductible for the paying spouse and taxable to the receiving spouse.

But if you get divorced after the plan is enacted, that would change: Alimony would be paid out of after-tax dollars and would be tax-free to the recipient.

This change would tend to increase the total amount of tax paid by divorced couples, since the ex-spouse who pays alimony is typically the one with the higher income and who faces a higher tax bracket.

Florida Alimony

In Florida a court can grant alimony to either party. There are different types of alimony a court can order: bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, durational, or permanent, or any combination of these forms of alimony. In any award of alimony, the court may order periodic payments or payments in lump sum or both.

The court can even consider the adultery of either spouse and the circumstances in determining the amount of alimony, if any, to be awarded.

But the very first finding the court has to make in determining whether to award alimony is whether either party has an actual need for alimony or maintenance and whether either party has the ability to pay alimony or maintenance.

If so, the court must consider all relevant factors, including, the standard of living established during the marriage; the duration of the marriage, the age and the physical and emotional condition of each party, and the financial resources of each party, among other factors.

Alimony Tax Reform

I have written about alimony and taxes, and alimony reform proposals for many years. This time the proposal comes from Congress, no the Florida Legislature.

All told, the proposed change under the tax proposal would lead to the federal government collecting an additional $8.3 billion in taxes from divorced couples over the next 10 years, according to the bill summary.

Arguably, imposing such a substantial tax penalty on divorce could encourage people to stick it out and make their marriages work. But it could also financially trap people in unhappy marriages.

One argument for this change is that it would be easier for the IRS to administer, and IRS data shows that alimony sometimes shows up deducted on one ex-spouse’s return but is not reported as income by the other ex-spouse.

The Impact on Divorces

There are many ways to settle a divorce case and render a judgment. And, one of the most important facts to consider in any divorce is the tax deduction for alimony payments.

Overwhelmingly, divorces include some sort of alimony payment provision. The problem for the new tax bill is that if couples are less likely to reach an agreement on alimony, divorce proceedings could become more gridlocked, time consuming and expensive.

The Business Insider article is here.

 

The Hoff is Modifying Alimony

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

The Final Judgment for divorce is not always the end of the case. After the final decree has been signed by the judge, there can be disagreements over custody for instance, and people’s fortunes can change for the worse, leading to alimony modification.

The Hoff

Modifying alimony because of a change in circumstances is a matter actor David Hasselhoff knows well. I wrote before on the actor and his ex-wife, Pamela Bach, reaching a post-judgment agreement lowering his alimony payments to $10,000 a month in alimony, almost half of what he paid her previously.

The Baywatch actor originally filed legal documents in April 2016 to either completely cut off or significantly reduce spousal support to his ex-wife, whom he divorced after 16 years of marriage in 2006.

The Hoff’s request for alimony modification is based on financial reasons. In a later filing, he claimed he had “less than $4,000 in liquid assets” to his name, and that he “recently had to withdraw additional funds from my retirement plan in order to pay for my living expenses.”

The actor had also claimed he’d paid in excess of $2.3 million to his ex-wife since they divorced 10 years ago, not including the money he has spent supporting his daughters, who were teenagers at the time of the split.

Florida Alimony Modification

In Florida, in order to modify alimony, the paying party requesting alimony modification must show three fundamental prerequisites: (1) a substantial change in circumstances, (2) the change was not contemplated at the time of the final judgment of dissolution, and (3) that the change is sufficient, material, involuntary and permanent in nature.

There are many reasons for seeking an alimony modification in your payments: loss of a job, injury and retirement. The Supreme Court of Florida has addressed the impact of retirement on support obligations in Florida.

To determine whether a voluntary retirement is reasonable, courts must consider, in part, the payor’s age, health, and motivation for retirement, as well as the type of work the payor performs and the age at which others engaged in that line of work normally retire. There are additional criteria a court must consider as well.

Back to the Hoff

TMZ reports that Pamela Bach may be seeking alimony modification, only in the other direction: up. According to the article, a rep for Hasselhoff’s ex reports that she worked hard on David’s behalf during their marriage, which is more than enough reason to continue supporting her now.

Pam contributed a number of services toward his career — everything from consulting, accounting and handling administrative duties to keeping up with the house and kids … whom she still considers under her parental care, even at 25 and 27.

The TMZ article is here.

 

Pet Alimony?

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Sarah Bronilla is suing her ex-husband, Joshua Rosen, for over $32,000 in alimony. No, not alimony for herself, but for their pampered English bulldog, Lola. The case arising out of New York may be one of the first “dogimony” cases.

As the New York Daily News reports, when Sarah Bronilla and Joshua Rosen separated in 2012 – after six years of marriage – Rosen agreed he would pay Bronilla $200 in monthly “dogimony”, she says in her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit against him for pet alimony.

Florida Alimony

In Florida, alimony is governed by the Florida Statutes and relevant case law. The starting point in any alimony case is whether there is an actual need for alimony by a spouse, and the ability of the paying spouse to pay for alimony.

However, Florida Statutes are silent as to pet alimony.

I have written about divorce and pet issues several times. Pet custody, or who gets the pet dog, is a frequent problem. Alaska became the first state to enact a pet custody law.

A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in Rhode Island which is very similar to the law of Alaska which was enacted this year. The Rhode Island bill requires judges to “consider the best interest of the animal” in a divorce or separation. Currently, there is no such provision in the works in Florida.

Florida does not have any pet specific custody or divorce laws. In fact, the alimony law is written in such a way that the court can only grant alimony to a party, not a pet of the parties.

Just because there is no specific law authorizing pet alimony does not mean: ‘that dog won’t hunt!’ People are free to enter into marital settlement agreements which make provision for support, such as pet alimony, that the law does not.

Those contracts could be enforceable as Mr. Rosen in New York may find out.

New York Pet Alimony

According to the New York complaint, Rosen not only agreed he would pay $200 in monthly pet alimony, or “dogimony”, Rosen also agreed to cover total food costs and half of the vet bills for the pet dog.

But the ‘deadbeat dog dad’ has skipped out on his financial obligations for pet alimony, Bronilla alleges in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Bronilla says she has had to cover $12,000 for upkeep, $18,000 for food and $2,335 for health costs for the pooch, described as “fawn-colored” in the lawsuit.

In addition to the unpaid pet alimony, Bronilla claims Rosen owes her around another $100,000 related to their settlement agreement, including money from a portion of a business he sold.

The New York Daily News article is here.

 

Is the Length of Your Marriage Important?

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer were married in 1978, and they’re still together after 39 years. But, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries broke up after 72 days. What is the impact of the duration of your marriage on divorce?

Quickest Hollywood Marriages

After only one month of marriage, Golnes “GG” Gharachedaghi decided to end her marriage because “certain facts have come to GG’s attention that have made her realize her marriage can no longer continue, and, in fact, should never have happened.”

Britney Spears and Jason Alexander lasted for a whopping 55 hours in January 2004.

Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas were married when she was only 19 after only 6 weeks of dating. They filed for divorce after less than two months of marriage.

Florida and Length of Marriage

In Florida, the duration of marriage plays a very important role in divorce cases. I’ve written about the types of alimony awards available in Florida before. For instance, Florida Statutes dealing with alimony specifically limit the type of alimony awards based on the duration of the marriage.

So, for determining alimony, there is a rebuttable presumption that a short-term marriage is a marriage less than 7-years, a moderate-term marriage is greater than 7-years but less than 17-years, and long-term marriage is 17-years or greater.

Florida defines the duration of marriage as the period of time from the date of marriage until the date of filing of an action for dissolution of marriage.

The duration of marriage is also a factor in property divisions. When a court distributes the marital assets and liabilities between the parties, the court begins with the premise of an equal split.

However, there are times and cases which justify an unequal distribution based on several relevant factors. One of the factors a court can consider is the duration of marriage, in addition to other factors.

Celebrity Marriages

Given how important the duration of marriage can be for awarding alimony, and considering an unequal distribution of property, the marriage between Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley – in which Cage filed for divorce a mere 108 days later – would have a very different result than the marriage between Kevin Bacon & Kyra Sedgwick, which is going on 26-years.

The eonline article is here.

 

Florida Alimony Reform: R.I.P.

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Alimony reform in Florida will have to wait. With 35 days left in the Legislative session, the bills are not getting a hearing in either the House or the Senate, meaning the alimony reform bills will likely die in committee.

Florida Alimony

In Florida, alimony is awarded to a spouse when there is a need for it, and the other spouse has the ability to pay for alimony. Alimony can take various forms.

For example, alimony can be awarded to “bridge the gap” between married and single life. This is usually a short term form of alimony, and in fact, can’t exceed two years.

Alimony can also be rehabilitative – to help a party in establishing the capacity for self-support by developing skills or credentials; or acquiring education, training, or work experience. The underlying goal is to get you into a position where you can take care of expenses without assistance.

Durational Alimony is awarded when permanent periodic alimony is inappropriate. The purpose of durational alimony is to provide you with economic assistance for a time after a short or moderate term marriage, or even long marriages, if there is no ongoing need for support on a permanent basis.

Permanent Alimony is awarded to provide for your needs and necessities of life as they were established during your marriage, if you lack the financial ability to meet your needs and necessities of life following a divorce. However, a court has to find that there is no other form of alimony that would be fair and reasonable.

Although people often think of alimony as paid on a monthly basis, it can be awarded in a lump sum or be a combination of the two. In making a determination of whether or not to award alimony, the court may consider non-monetary factors.

Alimony Reform

Alimony reform is a nationwide phenomenon. A few states have already limited alimony, especially in cases where the marriage is less than 20 years.

Florida is not alone in moving for alimony reform. Currently, there are two bills in Florida trying to be passed to amend our alimony statute. However, many state bills, like Florida’s, are in progress, or are constantly evolving.

Unlike child support, which is common when a divorcing couple has kids, alimony awards have always been very rare, going from about 25% of cases in the 1960s to about 10% today. In one study of Wisconsin cases, it was only 8.6%.

Florida’s Alimony Reform Bill

This year’s bills would have provided judges with a set of guidelines for calculating alimony, and would also have provided judges and lawyers reasons to deviate from the proposed alimony guidelines in special cases.

I wrote about the failure of the alimony reform bills before. First, in 2015, when the Florida House of Representatives made a surprising end of their session, killing all bills.

Last year, Governor Scott vetoed a similar bill, but last year’s bill had a major difference. Last year’s bill added a provision that made equal timesharing a presumption in every case. Because of the equal timesharing presumption, the governor vetoed last year’s bill.

Withering on the Vine

For people who oppose alimony reform, there is good news: the bills are dead for the year. Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, the Naples Republican who’s carrying the Senate version (SB 412), this week said the chair of its first committee of reference refused to hear the alimony bill.

“Chairman Garcia determined that he was not interested in hearing it and I respect that decision,” Passidomo said. “I don’t think leadership weighed in on it.”

Sen. Passidomo also noted that the House version of the bill (HB 283), sponsored by Lakeland Republican state Rep. Colleen Burton, has also not gotten a hearing. Given that the House subcommittees are wrapping up work this week, that virtually dooms the legislation there.

The Florida Politics article is available here.

 

Ben Affleck: Should You Separate or Divorce?

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Jennifer Garner filed for divorce from her husband, actor Ben Affleck, almost two years ago, but has yet to officially end her marriage despite a long-term separation.

Affleck has reportedly even been staying in a spare bedroom on the family’s Los Angeles compound. A few weeks back, Us Weekly reported that the couple would keep on with their divorce despite rumors of a possible reconciliation.

The next day, though, E! News claimed that the couple has a “fluid” relationship and that “nothing has really changed” for the couple who has “been working on their relationship for the past few years” and remain in a long-term separation.

Not obtaining an official divorce decree, and having a long-term separation, seems like a good idea, but there are risks. I’ve written about the risks when people separate for years before filing for, or dissolving, their marriages.

Control Over Assets

If you are in a long-term separation, you can be totally out-of-the-loop about your financial well-being. You don’t know what your spouse is earning, spending, investing, selling or buying. In Equitable Distribution states, like Florida, you may be on the hook for some of the debts accumulating during the long-term separation.

Hiding Assets

While you may see no immediate need to legally dissolve your marriage, a long-term separation allows a spouse to plan for a divorce. And, spouses usually plan to make sure that valuable, or difficult to trace, assets are gone when the time comes to disclose your assets and liabilities.

Relocation

Florida has laws governing all aspects of the divorce process, especially as they relate to children. During a long-term separation, your spouse could be transferred to another city, state, or even another country. You should know that the laws relating to divorce and interstate custody are not the same in every state.

Alimony Laws are Changing

For the last several years, the Florida Legislature has tried unsuccessfully to change our alimony laws. The Florida House and the Florida Senate have already introduced bills this year that would dramatically change alimony in Florida. During a long-term separation, alimony laws can change.

The new bills require use of factors to calculate alimony; provide presumptions concerning alimony awards based on the duration of marriages; provide for imputating income in certain circumstances; provide requirements related to taxing and deducting alimony; and prohibit courts from changing the duration of alimony award.

Meeting Someone New

While meeting someone new may make you happier and more fulfilled, it may not help your settlement negotiations. When spouses enter new relationships, they might spend your share of marital assets on their new love interest: buying gifts, going to expensive restaurants, and taking fancy vacations.

Whatever the reasons Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have had for putting off their divorce, there are pitfalls of a long separation you should be aware of.

The Vanity Fair article is here.

Alimony Reform . . . Chicago Style

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Monday, December 5, 2016.

When it comes to divorce, the adage: “for richer or for poorer” may determine how much alimony gets paid. Illinois recently revamped its family laws, including reforming alimony, and switched to the no-fault system.

In a Chicago divorce, the multimillionaire founder of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, are battling over whether the wife needs more than $400,000 a month for her living expenses.

As the Chicago Tribune reports, while the superrich duke it out over a standard of living most people will never experience, a shift in Illinois divorce law aims to reduce conflicts in dissolving marriages and establish better equity for former spouses with more modest incomes.

The policy changes are driven by attempts to correct past injustices that often left ex-wives with little money and no viable way to support themselves after years of raising children, divorce attorneys said. They mark the first major revamp of Illinois divorce law in almost 40 years.

The first comprehensive change in alimony law in Chicago took effect this year and reflect other cultural shifts. The biggest change is that the old grounds for divorce – like adultery, bigamy and cruelty – have largely been eliminated, moving Illinois to a no-fault divorce system.

The new law also eliminated the words “custody” and “visitation,” replacing them with “parental responsibilities” and “parenting time.” That means parents must propose and accept an agreement on who will have the kids when, and how the parents will jointly make decisions about their children’s education, religion, health and extracurricular activities.

In addition, for the first time, Illinois’ divorce laws have set a formula for determining alimony. Additionally, the duration of maintenance, which was left to the judge’s discretion before; now depends on the length of the marriage.

Wealthy spouses fighting over riches attract media attention, but it’s far more common for poor couples to wrestle with the increased expense of maintaining two households instead of one.

In Florida, I’ve written about past legislative efforts to modify our custody and alimony laws. Last year, Governor Scott vetoes a bill that would have modified custody and alimony.

The bill was emotionally divisive, but had broad support in the Legislature, passing the House by a comfortable 74-38 margin and the Senate by a 24-14 vote in March 2016.

The Chicago Tribune article is here.

Refusing to Accept Alimony?

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By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Alimony on Wednesday, November 19, 2014.

Alimony reform should be back on the table in the next legislative session now that the governor election is over. But just because alimony is available, not every client accepts it. A Forbes article explains why.

Suzan French married at 18, soon after had a daughter and found herself unhappily married. “My husband was a nice guy but worked 12 to 16 hours per day. “My marriage allowed me to stay home full-time with my daughter,” says French.

“That was a luxury – not a job. I was compensated. I had a nice home, drove a nice car, had access to a bank account. Asking for alimony would be like asking for a pension for a job I no longer did. It just didn’t seem fair.”

It took her 10 years of attending community college part-time, but eventually she graduated from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Today, she owns a public relations and marketing company, owns her home and is putting two daughters through college.

“Sometimes if you have too much of a cushion you’re not as aggressive in pursuing your dreams.”

Dana Lin was also a stay-at-home mom for most of her marriage, and like Starrick, admits there was a measure of pride in not pursuing alimony in her divorce, even though she could barely support herself. “I didn’t want anyone to say I couldn’t make it without him.”

Lin pursued her dream of being a screenwriter, today working as a script doctor and ghostwriter. Two years ago with a partner she launched Zen Life Services, which provides stress training management skills to law enforcement employees.

“Living lean taught me to be more disciplined,” she says. “Sometimes if you have too much of a cushion you’re not as aggressive in pursuing your dreams have.”

The Forbes article can be read here.