Good Morning America doing story on men receiving alimony
In a follow-up to my post yesterday about the Wall Street Journal article on men receiving alimony, Good Morning America is now seeking men who are receiving alimony. Here's your chance for 15 minutes of fame. So if you are a man and receiving alimony from your ex-wife, click here for details on contacting GMA.
More women paying their ex-husbands alimony
The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article this morning about the rise in men receiving alimony. According to the article, the number of men receiving alimony from their former wives rose from 2.4% to 3.6% in a five year period ending 2006. Today, females make more money than their spouses in 33% of all families.
And it also appears the distaste some have for paying alimony crosses gender lines. As one woman said, "I feel financially raped" while another woman said she would spit on the alimony checks she wrote each month to her ex-husband.
In a story out of Florida, a Florida man stopped paying his alimony payments to his ex-wife who is terminally ill with ovarian cancer. According to the story, when she asked him why he stopped paying, he stated, "Aren't you dead yet." To add to the situation, he is over $11,000 behind in his payments. Hopefully, the woman will get her ex-husband in front of a judge quickly and the man can be made to answer for his cold-hearted actions.
Unforeseen and unanticipated increased expenses could justify modifying periodic alimony payments in Mississippi
Continuing on with my discussion about modification of periodic alimony, a change in health condition and increased medical costs of the recipient spouse due to a kidney transplant justified an increase in alimony payments. In Makamson v. Makamson, the Mississippi Court of Appeals approved a chancellor’s decision to increase the alimony payments 12 years after the divorce due to the medical costs associated with a kidney transplant of the recipient spouse. The costs associated with her transplant were not something anticipated at the time of the divorce although she was diagnosed with the kidney problem 5 years before the divorce. As the court noted, the test for modification is a substantial change in circumstances which:
“must have been some change which resulted from ‘after-arising circumstances of the parties not reasonably anticipated at the time of the agreement’ and furthermore the change must ‘be one that could not have been anticipated by the parties at the time of the original decree.”
Can an alimony award be modified in a Mississippi divorce?
In order to determine whether alimony can be modified following a divorce, you must first determine what type of alimony was awarded. Generally speaking, periodic alimony, just like rehabilitative, can be modified. Lump sum alimony, along with reimbursement, can not be modified. The reasoning for the latter is that lump sum and reimbursement alimony are akin to a property settlement. But what if you were awarded periodic alimony in your divorce. Can it be modified years following the divorce and if so, how long after the award? These issues were addressed in a case this week out of Wayne County, Mississippi.
In Austin v. Austin, the parties agreed to an irreconcilable divorce in 2001 after 18 years of marriage. Under the terms of the child custody and property settlement agreement, the wife was given custody of the three children and the husband agreed to pay $1,000 a month in child support, $30,400 on March 15th each year, and $15,200 on August 15 each year (essentially $4,800 a month in child support). He also agreed to pay alimony of $1,000 a month and 35% gross of all bonuses and other compensation with the exception of his monthly draw.
Continue reading "Mississippi Court of Appeals affirms reduction in alimony and child support" »
In a Mississippi divorce, can a spouse be compensated for putting the other spouse through college?
We have all heard the story of the wife who puts her husband through medical school only to have him divorce her just as he graduates. I had a similar experience in law school with a law school classmate. The question is can the spouse who supported the student spouse be adequately compensated? The problem is the benefits of that professional education have not paid off. So how can the chancellor equitably divided the marital assets?
Some states have held that a professional degree is a marital asset which can be valued and divided. However, like the majority of states, Mississippi rejected that approach in Guy v. Guy (Miss. 1999). The Court's rationale was:
Continue reading "When a college diploma leads to a divorce complaint" »
$725,000 a month in alimony
$725,000 a month, or $24,000 a day, in temporary alimony is what you pay when you're a 72-year-old billionaire getting a divorce from your 60-year-old second wife and failed to get a premarital agreement before your marriage. In divorce proceedings which read more like the latest best seller from Jackie Collins, Billionaire Richard Scaife is involved in nasty divorce proceedings with allegations of dog-snatching, assault, and adultery involving a prostitute. Scaife, who is the great nephew of Andrew Mellon (for you history buffs, he is the Mellon who created a financial empire during the Gilded Age), is the beneficiary of various trusts which earn him approximately $45 million a year.
If there ever was a case needing a premarital agreement, this was one. For more details on the divorce proceedings, you can read the article from the Washington Post.
Returning stay at home parents to work following divorce
Rehabilitative alimony is the third type of alimony which can be awarded in a Mississippi divorce. The Mississippi Supreme Court described it a financial award "to parties who have put their career on hold while taking care of the marital home.” It is intended to allow “the lesser party to start anew without being destitute in the interim.” Lauro v. Lauro. Like periodic alimony, it is modifiable.
The classic example for rehabilitative alimony is a couple that marries and decide the wife should stay at home to care for the children while the husband works. This works great until the couple divorces. The husband has a career and is earning money, but the wife would be destitute without financial support from the husband. The wife, although she may have the ability to earn a living, needs time to return to the workforce or return to school in order to enter the workforce. During this interim period, the wife needs financial support. This is where rehabilitative alimony fits. It will provide the wife an income until such time as she is able to get back on her feet.
Continue reading "Rehabilitative alimony in Mississippi" »
Is it alimony or a property settlement?
The second type of alimony in Mississippi is lump sum alimony. However, it is really not alimony in the traditional sense. Rather, it is better to describe lump sum alimony as a cash equalizer. According to the Mississippi Supreme Court, it is a tool to be used in dividing property.
To differentiate it from periodic alimony, lump sum alimony is more akin to a property settlement. It may not be modified absent fraud. If the payor dies before the amount is paid, it becomes the obligation of the payor’s estate. It is not taxable to the recipient. Finally, it can be paid all at once or the court can order it be paid over time in installments. So how is it used?
Continue reading "Lump Sum Alimony in Mississippi" »
Buyer Beware—Know what you are signing in a divorce property settlement agreement
In many divorces in Mississippi, five years following the divorce, the same amount of money is being paid in alimony despite the cost of living having increased during the same period. That same money will not buy what it once did. The solution is an alimony escalation clause. The problem is anticipating the impact of that escalation clause.
In 2000, the Mississippi Supreme Court first approved the use of alimony escalation clauses in property settlement agreements. Up until then, Mississippi courts had only addressed the use of escalation clauses in child support cases where they were, and still are, disapproved more than approved. In Speed v. Speed, the Hinds County couple entered into a property settlement agreement. Under the agreement, the husband agreed to pay $1,500 per month in alimony. The parties further agreed that the payments would “increase or decrease directly in relation to the increases and the cost of living as determined by the U.S. Department of Commerce Consumers Cost of Living Index, to be adjusted annually….” Speed at 222. For ten years, the husband paid in accordance with the agreement, but then quit paying the escalated amounts. At a contempt hearing for his failure to pay, the husband complained the escalation clause was unfair and unenforceable. The chancery court agreed. In reversing the chancery court, the Mississippi Supreme Court stated:
“Absent fraud, overreaching or mistake, escalation clauses in property agreements are enforceable even though the agreement may prove to be improvident for one party in the future.” Speed at 226.
The Court said alimony escalation clauses in property settlement agreements protect both spouses from increases or decreases in income and encouraged their use in future cases.
Continue reading "Alimony Escalation Clauses Enforceable in Mississippi?" »
Cover your financial bases
Here is an interesting article in the USA Today entitled "Breaking up is hard to do financially." It offers advice for the top 5 financial mistakes couples make when divorcing. For those divorcing in Mississippi, you should discuss this advice with your attorney to ensure you are protected financially.
What do you mean I have to support my ex-spouse!
In a previous post, I said I would talk about alimony in Mississippi more in-depth. Here is the first in a series of articles on alimony. In this post, we will focus on periodic alimony in Mississippi divorces.
First, what is periodic alimony? It is a fixed sum of money paid monthly until such time as the spouse receiving the alimony dies or remarries or the spouse paying the alimony dies. It can be modified with a showing of material change in circumstances. Its purpose is to support one spouse in cases of financial disparity. While some courts have said periodic alimony is intended to allow the spouse to maintain the lifestyle they became accustomed to while married, it is not intended to leave the paying spouse destitute. As one court stated, “the chancellor should consider the wife’s reasonable needs and the husband’s right to lead as normal a life as possible with a decent standard of living.” LaRue v. LaRue The fact is that most divorced couples can not maintain the same lifestyle they had while married given many expenses are duplicated after divorce.
Continue reading "Periodic alimony in Mississippi" »
Is this all I get?
Being a Mississippi divorce lawyer, I get questions about whether a spouse is entitled to alimony. The answer is it depends. After the equitable distribution of the marital estate (see previous post), the chancellor will look at the whole spectrum of property available to both spouses—the marital property divided as well as the non-marital property under each spouse’s control. If one party is left with a deficit, then the chancellor is to consider awarding alimony. In Mississippi, there are four different types of alimony—periodic, lump sum, rehabilitative, and reimbursement.
Continue reading "Property Division (Part III)—Alimony in Mississippi" »
