Spousal support or spousal maintenance is one of the many financial decisions spouses must make in a Colorado divorce. Most marriages are financially bound making the separation of property, assets, bank accounts, and living arrangements nearly impossible.
This division is only complicated by the fact that many spouses carry different marital responsibilities. One spouse may be the primary monetary provider for the family while the other maintains the home, manages the children, and carries out daily tasks.
Before broaching the subject of divorce or attempting to financially separate your life from your spouse, find out how Colorado’s spousal maintenance laws will impact you. Reach out to a Greeley spousal support lawyer at The Law Office of Stephen Vertucci, LLC.
The Greeley spousal support attorneys at The Law Office of Stephen Vertucci, LLC, are experienced and effective family law attorneys who will fight to ensure your spousal maintenance order is fair.
At The Law Office of Stephen Vertucci, LLC, our goal is to reduce your stress. We do this through:
Call or contact our Colorado divorce attorneys now to schedule a confidential consultation. Retaining our firm to handle your spousal support matter will allow you to focus on your family and move forward with your life.
Spousal support is called spousal maintenance in Colorado. While judges have guidelines to assist them in determining spousal maintenance amounts for marriages from three to twenty years, these are only guides.
Judges may choose to order a higher or lower spousal maintenance amount than is called for according to the statutory guidelines. Or, they may choose not to award spousal maintenance at all. Judges may award spousal maintenance outside of the three to twenty-year length guides as well.
Marital misconduct is not a consideration in Colorado spousal maintenance awards.
Judges may award statutory maintenance during or at the end of a divorce. Statutory maintenance ordered during a divorce is called temporary maintenance. Temporary maintenance ends upon divorce.
Spousal maintenance orders at the end of a divorce are considered long-term but may vary in length. Colorado’s spousal maintenance guidelines suggest support runs a percentage of the length of the marriage. The longer the marriage, the longer the term of support.
Statutory maintenance is capped at 50% of the marriage once a marriage reaches twelve and a half years. For example, a marriage lasting fifteen years would have a spousal maintenance cap of seven and a half years.
Colorado does allow spouses married longer than twenty years to receive lifelong spousal maintenance.
Judges do not have to order spousal maintenance. Divorcing couples can choose their spousal maintenance terms. These agreements are called contractual and non-modifiable spousal maintenance.
However, a contractual and non-modifiable spousal maintenance agreement is non-modifiable. A non-modifiable agreement cannot be adjusted for any reason while other spousal maintenance awards may be modified when there is a substantial change in a spouse’s circumstances.
Spousal maintenance is decided on a case-by-case basis. For an accurate assessment of your spousal maintenance case, contact The Law Office of Stephen Vertucci, LLC.
Our Greeley spousal support lawyers can assist you with a temporary or long-term spousal maintenance order. We can also help if you need a spousal maintenance modification.