Many spouses (more so decades ago) put their own professional goals aside or at least moved them to the back burner to be a stay-at-home parent and handle the household responsibilities while their spouse devoted their time to building a lucrative career or their own business. They typically have the right to seek alimony to help them maintain something close to their marital standard of living that they can’t possibly maintain on their own.
If they also devoted time and energy to helping their spouse in their philanthropical and social activities that let them maintain a high profile and solid reputation in the community, that can also be considered in their favor. These things are easier to argue for if the more professionally successful spouse has more than enough income and assets to do that without suffering financially themselves.
How long this level of support can be expected to continue depends on things like the length of the marriage, the ability of the spouse with less money to attain something close to their marital standard of living and both spouses’ ages and health.
Making a case under New Jersey law
New Jersey law doesn’t technically allow for “permanent” alimony. However, it does have “open durational” alimony (along with rehabilitative and limited duration). In awarding alimony, one factor courts are allowed to consider is the “standard of living established in the marriage or civil union and the likelihood that each party can maintain a reasonably comparable standard of living, with neither party having a greater entitlement to that standard of living than the other.”
If spouses can’t reach an alimony agreement themselves, a judge will have to make the decision. That means both sides will need to present their case. For the spouse seeking alimony (or maybe a larger share of the couple’s assets in addition to or instead of alimony payments), that means having a full and accurate accounting of their soon-to-be ex’s financial situation. That could necessitate having to find assets or income they’ve managed to hide.
Ultimately, due to the complexities involved, if you are divorcing it can be important to to have trusted, experienced legal guidance to build a case for alimony and/or property division agreements that will help you maintain the standard of living you’ve helped your family attain over the years.
