An alimony obligation can be a tough pill to swallow, but not all litigants are at equal risk. In this video, New Jersey divorce attorney Jordan Rickards explains who is at the greatest risk for the largest alimony obligation, and why.

Below is a transcript of the above video:

“Hi, everybody. I want to talk today about what I call the “alimony danger zone.” And I know that sounds very scary and foreboding and in some sense it is, and it’s for a good reason, but just because something is unpleasant to talk about, doesn’t mean it’s not important to talk about it. In fact, sometimes it means it’s very important. That’s why I want to talk about it today.

Now what I consider the alimony danger zone is basically if you are the higher earning spouse and you’re getting divorced sometime in your middle, late forties to early fifties. And why do I say that? Well, because if you’re getting divorced much earlier than that, if you’re getting divorced, say your early thirties, mid thirties, you probably don’t have a very long term marriage. Right? And the duration of alimony is largely influenced by the length of the marriage. So let’s say you’re 35 and you’ve been married for eight years. Okay? Well, you’re really only looking at four years of alimony exposure, which is not the best thing in the world. I’m not saying it’s fun to do it, but four years are going to come and go and it’s better than the alternative. Okay?

On the other end of the spectrum, let’s say you’re 60 years old and you’ve been married for 30 years. You might think, well, that’s much worse because of the duration. And in a sense you’d be right, because if you look at the alimony video I did previously, you’ll know that any marriage that’s 20 years or greater is automatically going to be what’s called open durational, which means that it doesn’t have a definitive end date. So you might think, okay, well, if you’re 60 years old and you’ve been married 30 years, you’re in a lot of trouble.

But here’s the thing. Even in open durational marriages, there’s a presumptive end date of spousal support, which is equal to the full social security of retirement age. So if you’re 60 years old and you’re expected to retire at full social security by 67, even if the marriage was 30 years long, you’re probably only looking at seven or maybe eight years of spousal support. And so the older person, even though they’ve got the much longer marriage, they’re not looking at that much more spousal support than, say, somebody who was married 14 years and they’re getting divorced in their mid thirties, or even 40 years old. All right?

So on those two kind of extremes, even though they’re not that extreme, alimony is mitigated. Again, the younger you are, your marriage is going to be shorter term. Therefore, your spousal support is shorter term. The older you are, the closer you are to social security retirement age. And that has the effect of shortening your spousal support obligation.

The problems occur when we have these divorces and it’s from people who are in their, say, middle late forties to early fifties, because those are the marriages that are 20 years long, first of all, which means it’s going to automatically be open durational. And you’re not that close to retiring, right? If you’re, say, 45 years old, the presumptive retirement age is 68. Okay? If you’ve been in a 20-year marriage, well, you’re looking at possibly 23 years of spousal support.

Now, there are things that you can do to mitigate that. And that’s the good news, right? And that’s why it’s so important to hire an attorney, because an attorney is going to be able to show you ways to reduce the impact of spousal support in your life. Okay? There are ways to reduce the duration. All right? There are ways to sort of offset it against child support. There are ways to offset it against other responsibilities. And there are times, believe it or not, that spousal support, actually it’s beneficial for you to pay in a sense because it changes the income ratios. The more you’re paying in spousal support, the more the incomes between you and your spouse are equalized, which means now you’re paying a smaller percentage of medical expenses out of pocket. You’re paying a smaller percentage of extracurriculars, and you’re paying a smaller percentage of your college contributions. And that could be a huge amount of money.

And so when you’re facing a large spousal support award, or in your case, a large spousal support obligation, it’s important to have an attorney who’s experienced in this area, who knows how to blunt the damage. And that’s what this is. This is damage control. Understand, okay? If you’ve been married 20 years and you’re making significantly more than the other party, or even sometimes only a little bit more, you’re going to have a spousal support obligation. And so the issue is not, how do we get out of it entirely, but rather, how do we minimize the impact on your life and on your finances? Okay?

If you want to talk about that, I’m happy to speak with you. Just call the number below. I’m happy to provide a free consultation. Thank you for watching the video. And I hope you guys are all well. Take care.”