Four Types of Alimony in Tennessee

What are the rules for alimony in Tennessee? How is alimony paid? What about permanent alimony? Is Tennessee alimony paid for life? How long does alimony last in Tennessee? Some forms of alimony may be terminated. Is alimony taxable in Tennessee? The 4 types of alimony in Tennessee are alimony in solido, alimony in futuro (also called periodic alimony), rehabilitative alimony, and transitional alimony.

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The 4 Types of Alimony in Tennessee (https://youtu.be/EL8L3wbUnd8)

In Tennessee law, every type of alimony sought in divorce plays an hugely important role. Maintaining and supporting a former spouse, possibly for life, may be the ‘hot button’ disputed issue for many couples. Sometimes for very good reason.

What are the rules for alimony in Tennessee? How is alimony paid?

Looking at T.C.A. § 36-5-121, there are four types of alimony in Tennessee law:

When circumstances allow, set reading time aside to focus on each type of support before consulting a divorce lawyer. Recognizing basic differences between the four types of alimony equates to a greater return on your investment in the attorney’s time. Read key alimony pages on our website. Jot down questions to raise with an attorney when you are ready to meet and discuss your case. Start with Alimony Law in Tennessee Divorce | Answers to FAQs.

Helpful discussions about each alimony type, actual cases and analysis, and the court proceedings involved are always available here on memphisdivorce.com. Informative online videos for Tennessee spouses are available, too. Visit the firm’s website or search YouTube for Tennessee alimony talks with family law attorney Miles Mason, Sr.

Each Alimony Type Should Provide Needed Support

Regardless of the type, an alimony order requires one spouse pay support to the other spouse after the divorce. Beyond that deceptively simple description, alimony law is complicated with sometimes unpredictable case results.

Why Some Alimony Orders Create Dissatisfaction

When boiled down to bare bones, there are two core complaints people lodge over their alimony orders: One, “I pay too much.” Two, “I receive too little.” In a perfect world, every recipient and obligor would feel alimony payments were fair, reasonable, and manageable under the circumstances known or foreseeable at the time of divorce.

Former spouses are too often dissatisfied with the alimony orders they must abide by. Even more so when trial was necessary following failed negotiations. Or when divorce mediation did not end with agreement as to the type of alimony one spouse would pay the other.

Experienced divorce attorneys generally recommend that clients try to negotiate spousal support rather than let a judge determine alimony at trial. This should be done right along with negotiating division of marital property, valuation of business assets, decision-making authority over a child, funding college trusts for sons and daughters, and negotiating all other family concerns while still within the spouses’ control.

Alimony Type in Marital Dissolution Agreements

The type of alimony to be paid, often more than one, is an essential component of the spouses’ marital dissolution agreement (MDA). But only when agreement can be reached. When there is no agreement over a spouse’s support request for alimony in futuro, for example, then alimony in futuro must be added to the trial agenda and litigated. And trial preparation is intense.

Successful alimony attorneys are known by their peers and clients to over-prepare, ensuring that no twist in the case results in surprise. Consequently, litigation is typically the more costly alternative to an agreed upon MDA.

Furthermore, judicial determination at trial may leave one or both parties feeling like they have lost the battle. Leaving them dissatisfied with the court’s alimony order. Imagine exiting trial believing the decree to be a 10-year, 20-year, or lifetime sentence. A sentence that means receiving too little or paying too much under alimony terms set by a judge – terms the spouses did not agree to and do not want.

Difficult to Overturn Alimony Order on Appeal

Either party can appeal the judge’s final alimony order. When we look at the bigger picture and the broad discretion given the trial judge in deciding alimony, reversal on appeal seems less probable. Here’s why.

In practice, the Court of Appeals will seldom reverse the trial court on alimony. For the final decree to be reversed, the trial court must have applied an incorrect legal standard or made a final decision that was clearly unreasonable. Complete reversal of the final alimony determination may be unlikely, but it is not impossible. Every alimony case is unique.

An Open Wound Called “Alimony”

An unsatisfactory alimony award is one that does not meet one or both spouses’ needs or demands. Most people understand that there is no ideal award. However, most spouses expect a reasonable award that is equitable for both of them.

Alimony should not be used to punish a spouse either. However, marital fault in causing the break-up may be a relevant factor for the court to consider in awarding a certain type of alimony. Specifically, the court considers the “relative fault of the parties in cases where the court, in its discretion, deems it appropriate to do so.” (Tennessee alimony factors are set forth in T.C.A. § 36-5-121(i).)

Any alimony type ordered could result in disappointment with the divorce decree. Consider a few examples:

Receiving insufficient transitional alimony to make the move into decent housing in a safe neighborhood;
Paying far more rehabilitative alimony for the other spouse’s vocational career training or college expenses than it should reasonably cost;
Having to sell the marital home to provide alimony in solido without having a reasonable opportunity to make repairs, which means selling an important asset at substantially reduced price; or
Having alimony in futuro end too soon for the economically dependent spouse to live on. By contrast, continuing alimony in futuro for so long the retired obligor must liquidate separate assets to pay the support obligation.

Greater Risk of Noncompliance with Alimony Orders

Problems with the type of alimony, along with the nature, amount, length of term, and manner of payment may lead to a greater incidence of non-compliance, too. Noncompliance with judicial orders is usually followed by civil or criminal contempt actions. But that’s not all.

Festering dissatisfaction with alimony could spill over into the parties’ co-parenting relationship. Bitterness may be clouding judgment, influencing legal decision making, and tainting parenting time. Weary from “unfair” court-ordered spousal support, longstanding hostilities could damage family relationships for years after divorce. The marriage may not have been for life, but alimony in futuro could be.

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What about permanent alimony?

Type of Alimony Ordered in Most Tennessee Divorces

Some type of alimony is likely to be ordered in almost every Tennessee divorce. That is so whether the spouses were high earners with considerable wealth or enjoyed a simpler lifestyle on modest incomes. The longer the marriage, the greater the role some types of alimony will play in the divorce.

As noted above, Tennessee’s four alimony types are alimony in futuro (also called periodic alimony), alimony in solido (also called lump sum alimony), rehabilitative alimony, and transitional alimony. Unless the spouse did his or her homework, meeting a divorce attorney for the first time to talk about alimony could be a rude awakening. This may be especially so for marriages that lasted only a few years.

Undoubtedly, child custody disputes sometimes turn the divorce process into a passionate, litigious battlefield. Determining how marital property will be divided can push some to the brink of frustration. But there is something about alimony in Tennessee law with the potential to shoot emotions through the roof. Certainly alimony can profoundly impact each spouse’s financial future. Some consequences are felt immediately while others become apparent decades later or upon retirement.

Emotional responses are not always directed at one spouse’s need for support and maintenance or the other’s ability to pay for it. Passionate ire also stems from perceptions of unfairness, of unequal treatment, and from pure disbelief once the numbers are front and center.

The absence of any formal alimony guidelines for the parties, attorneys, and judges to follow does not help. By way of comparison, Tennessee Child Support Guidelines make calculating child support easy and support determinations very consistent and predictable across families.

Awarding any of the four types of alimony in Tennessee law is not nearly so predictable. Case results vary substantially. (Need examples? Just read a few case summaries under the alimony category of our Family Law Blog!) Lack of predictability almost always heightens tensions in the divorce. And with spouses already at odds, it can create barriers to what might otherwise proceed as a fairly amicable divorce settlement.

When one’s marriage has fallen apart, the very notion that the other spouse intends to hook onto future income (or onto assets acquired after the divorce) can be, well, absolutely maddening. But each type of alimony must be considered as a possible option in every single divorce case. If alimony is not requested in the divorce, then the opportunity for such support is lost. In Tennessee law, no petition for alimony can be filed later. Divorce is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a spouse to request support and maintenance in the form of alimony. Expect it.

Each Alimony Type Addresses an Important Need

Now with four types of alimony in Tennessee law, each type addresses important needs. Alimony is no panacea or cure-all. Alimony seldom fixes broken hearts and hurt feelings after a stormy marriage or hotly contested divorce.

Alimony does have purpose. It is the statutory purpose for each type that leads the court and the spouses to a decision on alimony in futuro, rehabilitative alimony, transitional alimony, and alimony in solido.

Alimony Questions People Ask Their Divorce Attorneys

Lawyers who routinely handle these cases know how confusing alimony can be for clients, especially in this day and age. When a question comes to your mind be sure to write it down and get it answered. The right request for the right type of alimony reaches far beyond the final decree. Thoughtful consideration from the beginning can mean a fair alimony arrangement and a more comfortable lifestyle going forward. When mishandled, alimony could result in the obligor feeling enslaved or the recipient feeling destitute – both feel trapped.

Alimony in Futuro

With alimony in futuro, these are some of the opening questions a divorce lawyer might expect from a client who needs help:

How much alimony will I get?
How much alimony will I have to pay?
What did my spouse do to deserve alimony for life?
If my ex remarries, must I keep paying alimony?
When I retire, will my alimony obligation terminate?
Will I stop receiving alimony if I get a good-paying job?

Rehabilitative Alimony

With rehabilitative alimony, divorce lawyers anticipate questions about the scope and limitations on spousal support under the circumstances:

Why should I have to pay rehabilitative alimony for my spouse to go back to school?
By finishing my University of Memphis bachelor’s degree program, I’ll be in a good position to support myself and my kids. Can I get financial assistance from my spouse in the form of rehabilitative alimony in order to help pay for college?
I want to open my own small business. I can’t do that without financial help while I remodel, develop clientele, gain recognition, build a good reputation, and start making money. Can I get rehabilitative alimony to cover my living expenses for the next two years?
I need job recertification if I’m to return to work full time. Can I get rehabilitative alimony to help pay for that?
My marriage is over because my spouse had an affair. Will I still have to pay rehabilitative alimony for that cheater’s living expenses while in school?
I set aside my own career plans to support our family and put my spouse through medical school. Can I get rehabilitative alimony to pay for my law school expenses?

Transitional Alimony

Transitional alimony is another possible way for one party to support the other after the divorce. Economically dependent spouses needing support may not be benefitted by a rehabilitative support order. For them, transitional alimony is an alternative. Why so? What could be earned after going back to school, for example, may not come close to supporting them in a manner similar to the lifestyle enjoyed during the marriage. Transitional alimony can help in cases where the recipient spouse will not be rehabilitated (as with an older spouse at or nearing full retirement age, for example).

Alimony in Solido

Discussions with the divorce lawyer about alimony in solido usually focus on dividing property – that is, on marital asset and debt division:

My spouse can have the house for the children. How do I get my share of the equity in a lump sum of cash? Can I get other marital assets of a value equal to my spousal interest in the marital home?
I can pay alimony in solido quarterly for a period of three years. Will that reasonably cover my spouse’s marital interest in my small business?
If I’m ordered to pay my spouse’s attorney’s fees, will that be included as alimony in solido?
Can I get alimony in solido if I demonstrate that I need to supplement my retirement?

Divorce is a lawsuit like no other. The best way to manage the issue of spousal support in your divorce is to prepare for it. If caught unprepared for alimony, then any spousal support award could leave the parties believing the amount is unfair and overly burdensome.

One Last Thought

Alimony is a part of Tennessee divorce, but it is not without limitations. Come up with a reasonable plan and a legal strategy for dealing with each type of alimony. Negotiate the appropriateness of alimony, the type or nature of alimony, along with the amount, length of term, and manner of payment of alimony. Remember this, there are those who make things happen and there are those who let things happen. Make this happen. By making negotiations happen, the risk of being dissatisfied with the alimony award in your divorce is substantially reduced.

On closing, if spousal support is no longer working because circumstances have materially changed since the divorce, then it may be time to seek modified alimony orders. Talk to your lawyer.