Sunday, April 19, 2015

Kiplinger - When Permanent Alimony Makes Sense

In a 2013 Kiplinger responded to a question as to when permanent alimony makes sense:
Permanent alimony is getting pretty rare, and rightly so in an era of approximate equality between the sexes in education and earnings potential. And it should always be appealable when circumstances change. But permanent alimony is still appropriate in some divorce cases. 
Among the factors that, singly or in combination, can justify permanent alimony are: The marriage was lengthy (30 or more years); the financially dependent spouse is in his or her fifties or older; the ex-spouse is in poor health, handicapped or has limited earning capacity, due to modest education and job skills; the ex-spouse financially supported the primary breadwinner early in the marriage (say, by helping to pay tuition); or one spouse gave up a career to support the other’s career and/or raise the children full-time.
Not a single one of these factors applied in my case. The marriage was less than 20 years, Spring was under 50 years old and in good health, I paid for most of her college tuition, a vocational evaluation concluded she could make just as much money as me, and custody of the children was joint. 

Spring received permanent alimony because the system is corrupt. Despite absolute evidence of fraud, the judge ruled for her because in Minnesota a judge can rule however they want. A Minnesota judge can rule based upon gender, race, religion or their personal relationship with one of the lawyers. They can even reward blatant criminal activity. The system really is that bad. 

No comments:

Post a Comment