When a Massachusetts judge is asked by one spouse to order the other to pay them alimony as part of a couple’s divorce agreement, they typically consider a number of factors. These include each spouse’s income, earning potential, age, health and how long they were married.
Another factor can be the “marital standard of living” or “marital lifestyle.” The spouse seeking alimony may ask to receive enough alimony to continue in something close to that lifestyle if their soon-to-be ex can afford to do so without significantly lessening their own standard of living.
This is most commonly a factor when a couple has been married for many years and has maintained a high standard of living largely due to one spouse’s income – especially when the other spouse can’t come close to maintaining that on their own. Maybe they’ve been a stay-at-home parent and out of the workforce for some time, for example.
What the Massachusetts high court ruled
A case last year that made it up to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dealt with another consideration — a couple’s “pattern of saving” throughout the marriage. The ruling in that case was called a “win for women,” but it can apply regardless of gender.
The wife in this case argued that the marital lifestyle considered in determining alimony should include not just what they spent money on, but how much they put away in savings, or “pattern of savings.” The court ruled in her favor.
A spokesperson for the Women’s Bar Association said that recognizing the importance of this “pattern of savings” during a marriage “is critical to protecting the financial well-being of women,” since they’re the ones who most often receive spousal support.
Recognizing that a couple’s “marital lifestyle” isn’t just a matter of how many expensive items they accumulated and how many luxury vacations they took, but also how much they put into savings for the future, can be critical to getting a fair alimony award in a divorce.