Spousal Maintenance AKA Alimony under Colorado Law
Spousal Maintenance in Colorado is governed primarily by C..R.S. §14-10-114. Several years ago the Colorado legislature adopted a set of rather precise guidelines to assist judges in making spousal maintenance awards. Generally, these guidelines help calculate a precise monthly amount based on the difference in gross monthly incomes between the parties. The guidelines also recommend a certain total number of months of maintenance based on the total number of months of marriage.
The guidelines only deal with marriages as short as three years but that does not preclude the court from awarding maintenance in a marriage of less than three years. That said, it is rather unusual for maintenance to be awarded in such “short- term” marriages.
Most people typically think of spousal maintenance as being awarded at the end of the case. However, it is often awarded on a temporary basis near the beginning of the case to assist the lower income earner in meeting his/her needs while this case progresses. The average divorce case in Colorado takes about 8 months from beginning to end so this temporary maintenance is often essential.
When you get to the Final Orders stage, the Court must consider, among other things, the total length of the marriage. Keep in mind that it is the length of the marriage not the length of the relationship.
The Colorado statute calls for the spousal support term to be a percentage of the length of the marriage.
On the short end of the spectrum, someone could receive alimony for less than a year. On the opposite end, someone could be awarded maintenance for ten years or more.
The maintenance guideline term chart deals with marriages between three and 20 years. If you and your spouse have been married for three years, you could owe alimony for 11 months, or 31 percent of the marriage. The longer you’re married, the longer the suggested alimony term.
So, for example, if you’ve been married 7 and a half years the statute recommends alimony for 40 percent of that time. The statute caps suggested maintenance terms at 50 percent of the marriage. However, in a very long term marriage (think 20+
years), the court might consider a “lifetime” award meaning no predetermined termination date. Once you’ve been married for 12 and a half years, the maintenance term becomes 50 percent of the length of the marriage. Keep in mind that these are just “guidelines” both as to term and monthly amount. The court is not required to follow them though most judges do in most cases.
There has to be a meaningful difference in each party’s income for maintenance to be appropriate. Assuming there is such a difference in your case, let’s say the guideline calculation suggests a monthly maintenance amount of $3,000 and the guideline term is 8 years. That, in essence, means you’re entitled to receive $36,000 per year and over 8 years that totals $288,000. With this basic information, you can decide on various options to propose to settle maintenance.
You could just propose that you receive “extra” martial property over the normal 50- 50 split and thus, no monthly maintenance would be due because it has all been prepaid. Of course, if your soon-to-be ex-spouse has decent legal counsel, he will counter and say getting the full amount up front should result in “discount to present value” reduction of the $288,000. This is appropriate because of the time value of money. So expect a counter with a 15-20% discount for prepayment. Thus, the counteroffer in the scenario above would be about $235,000. There is also a benefit in this settlement approach because you are paid up front and don’t have to worry about your ex dying or suddenly not being able to afford maintenance and seeking a downward modification from the court years after your case is over.
That’s not to say that the death of your ex means you won’t get paid though. You can securitize your alimony by having life insurance on your ex for an amount not to exceed what is owed in total alimony at the time of death,
It’s worth noting that pursuant to statute, the judge has to first divide all assets and debts before addressing spousal maintenance. That’s because, even with the relatively new guidelines, Colorado law still requires that two threshold questions be answered after property has been divided. Those questions are is there a need for maintenance and does the higher income earner have the ability to pay. Thus, in some cases, even a very long marriage might result in no maintenance if, for example, the lower income earner is awarded millions of dollars in property and arguably would not need maintenance.
In short, like most areas of the law, maintenance, even in the age of guidelines, is complicated. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions but if not me, talk to any experienced family law attorney.
If you have questions or if you would like to set-up an initial consultation please call me at 719-471-7956.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ©John L. Cyboron. John Cyboron has been practicing law since 1996 and has lived in Colorado Springs since 1997. He practices extensively in Family Law throughout Colorado. He has been married for 20 years and has three children. When he is not working tirelessly for his clients, he enjoys, cycling, playing hockey, golf and tennis.
