Tag Archive for: modifying alimony

Can You Terminate Alimony?

Being under legal obligation to pay alimony or spousal support can present financial challenges, especially when your circumstances change. You may wonder: Can you terminate alimony?

You may be able to seek an alimony modification or termination if you have a valid reason for doing so. Consult an experienced divorce attorney for assistance navigating this process. 

Is Alimony Permanent? 

Many alimony arrangements are temporary, not permanent. Often, the court awards alimony temporarily to give the receiving spouse time to resolve their financial hardship after the divorce. Consult your divorce attorney to understand the intended length of your alimony payments. 

If your alimony is considered long-term or permanent and you can no longer reasonably afford these payments, you may be able to petition the court for a modification based on significant changes in your financial circumstances. Your attorney will help you understand spousal support termination laws and your potential eligibility to modify this agreement. 

Common Grounds for Seeking Alimony Modification or Termination

The court may consider granting an alimony modification or termination for a few reasons. 

  • Your ex-spouse has started making more money: If your ex-spouse has resolved their financial hardship and your alimony payments are no longer necessary to support them financially, the court may agree to terminate alimony. 
  • You have lost your job and cannot find a comparable salary: The court generally bases alimony payments on both spouses’ income at the time of the divorce. If you lose your job and cannot find a position with a comparable salary, the judge may be willing to terminate future alimony payments. However, if you still earn more than your spouse, they may be more likely to modify the payments to reflect your current financial situation. 
  • Your financial circumstances have changed significantly: If you have recently experienced significant financial changes due to factors outside your control, the court may agree to terminate or modify the alimony order. 
  • Your spouse is remarried: In many cases, the court agrees to terminate alimony when the receiving spouse remarries. Remarriage could indicate that the spouse is no longer in financial hardship. 

What Factors Does the Court Consider in an Alimony Modification?

Modifying or terminating alimony requires you and your attorney to submit a court petition requesting a change to the existing alimony order, along with evidence of changes in your circumstances. These are a few factors the court considers when reviewing the petition: 

  • Why your income changed: Did you choose to leave your job, or were you fired? 
  • Whether you tried to find a new job with a comparable salary: If you have not put reasonable effort into finding a new job with comparable pay, the judge may claim you are “underemployed,” meaning you are making less money than your financial potential. 
  • The recipient’s financial situation: If the recipient’s financial situation has not changed, the court may hesitate to decrease their alimony payments and potentially place a financial burden on them. 

Can you terminate alimony? Karen Ann Ulmer, P.C., can review your alimony agreement and help you understand whether a modification or termination may be appropriate. Request a confidential consultation today by calling (866) 349-4117.

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Can Alimony be Modified?

Alimony is support paid by one ex-spouse to the other. Depending on the circumstances, it can start during the divorce process and last a spouse’s lifetime. Lives change over time, and alimony can too, either with the parties’ agreement or a court order. 

The alimony amount is usually based on the parties’ incomes and is often determined by the couple’s financial situation. The amount may be negotiated up or down in light of how the marital assets are split. 

Karen Ann Ulmer, P.C., often helps clients with alimony modifications. The only permanent thing is change. An alimony award that may have been fair and reasonable five years ago may need to be changed today. 

What Types of Alimony Are There? 

Alimony is usually considered rehabilitative or reimbursement, though an ex-spouse may get both, based on the case’s facts: 

  • Reimbursement: Alimony that is meant to pay back one spouse for aiding the other with a significant expense, like education or starting a business. 
  • Rehabilitative: This is usually awarded for a given time so the receiving spouse has time and resources to receive training or education to become self-supporting. 

If there is little chance that an ex-spouse will support themselves in the future, the party may be awarded “permanent” alimony. Based on how the parties’ lives play out post-divorce, this “permanent” alimony could stop if the person receiving it remarries or lives with a new partner. 

How Can a Party Modify the Alimony Amount They Pay or Receive? 

Unless they previously agreed otherwise, all types may be modified due to either party’s changed circumstances. It will not be allowed if there is no mention of future alimony modifications in a divorce agreement. 

If one party wants to increase or decrease the payments and cannot resolve the issue with the other, it can be decided in court. Under Pennsylvania law: 

“An order entered pursuant to this section is subject to further order of the court upon changed circumstances of either party of a substantial and continuing nature whereupon the order may be modified, suspended, terminated or reinstituted or a new order made.”  

When making this decision, a court will consider 17 factors used to determine if alimony is necessary and, if so, the amount when the couple divorced. Some of those factors include: 

  • The parties’ relative earnings and earning capacities  
  • The parties’ ages and their physical, mental, and emotional conditions  
  • The parties’ income sources  
  • The extent the person’s earning power, expenses, or financial obligations will be affected by being a minor child’s custodian  
  • The parties’ standard of living during the marriage 
  • The parties’ assets and liabilities 
  • The property brought to the marriage by either party 
  • The parties’ relative needs 

Common grounds for an ex-spouse paying alimony to try to stop or reduce it include a loss of employment and developing a long-term physical or mental disability. A party receiving alimony could ask for more if the party paying it has a substantial and continuing income increase.  

No matter which side you are on, if you are asking the court to modify alimony payments, there must be evidence to support your claims because there is a process to go through, and you have the burden of proof. Speculation and opinions will not help. We can obtain evidence concerning your position through the discovery process. If necessary, we can also retain experts to analyze what we found. 

Contact Karen Ann Ulmer, P.C., if you have questions about or you need legal assistance with an alimony modification. Call us at (866) 311-4783 or complete our online contact form today.  

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