22 Oct Spousal Support After Long-Term Marriage in WA
If you spent much of your adult life building a household with your spouse, divorce can raise financial questions that feel hard to separate from the life you built together. One spouse may have earned most of the household income while the other stepped away from work or made career choices around the family. Understanding how spousal support after a long-term marriage in Washington works can help clarify how to address a lasting financial imbalance. Because every marriage has a different financial history, state law does not use a fixed formula or guarantee support for a certain number of years.
How Marriage Length Can Shape Spousal Support
Washington uses the term spousal maintenance for payments one spouse may be ordered to make to the other during or after a divorce. State law allows a court to award maintenance in an amount and for a period it considers just after reviewing the circumstances of the marriage. Marital misconduct is not part of that decision.
Marriage length matters because it can show how closely the spouses’ financial lives became connected. After a lengthy marriage, one spouse may have had years to build income and retirement benefits while the other has less current earning power. A judge can consider those differences along with the standard of living established during the marriage.
Washington statutes do not define a long-term marriage by a specific number of years. Appellate decisions have treated marriages of about 25 years or longer as long-term, but reaching that point does not automatically create a maintenance award. The court still has to apply the statutory factors to the circumstances of both spouses.
Long marriages can also raise a broader question about where each spouse will stand financially after the divorce. Washington appellate courts have recognized rough financial parity as an objective that can matter in property division after a long-term marriage, while making clear that it is not a mathematical rule. Maintenance remains a separate analysis, although both issues affect each spouse’s financial position once the marriage ends.
How Courts Can Evaluate a Maintenance Request
Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 26.09.090 identifies the factors a court considers when deciding maintenance. The analysis goes beyond asking which spouse earns more today. A judge looks at the resources available after divorce and whether the spouse seeking support can reasonably meet personal financial needs.
Relevant factors include:
- The financial resources of the spouse requesting support, including property received in the divorce.
- The time needed to obtain education or training for appropriate employment.
- The standard of living established during the marriage.
- The duration of the marriage.
- The requesting spouse’s age, health, and financial obligations.
- The other spouse’s ability to meet personal financial obligations while paying maintenance.
Those factors can look very different after a long marriage than they do after a short one. Someone who left the workforce many years ago may have a different employment outlook from a spouse who remained steadily employed. Age or health can also affect whether returning to school or substantially increasing earnings is realistic.
The paying spouse’s circumstances matter, too. Spousal support is not determined by the requesting spouse’s position alone because the court also considers the other spouse’s ability to meet personal obligations while making payments. A large income gap may matter, but no single fact determines the amount or duration.
How Property Division Can Affect the Financial Picture
Maintenance and property division are separate parts of a Washington divorce, but they can affect one another in practical terms. Under RCW 26.09.080, Washington courts divide property and liabilities in a way that is just and equitable after considering the relevant circumstances. The court may consider community property as well as separate property when deciding what division is fair.
For someone leaving a long-term marriage, the property award may significantly affect financial security after divorce. Retirement accounts can be especially important when the spouses are nearing retirement or have already stopped working. Other assets may provide meaningful resources without necessarily producing enough monthly income to cover ongoing needs.
Property received in the divorce is one of the resources the court can consider when evaluating a maintenance request. Even so, receiving substantial property does not automatically rule out spousal support. The question is how the property awarded fits with each spouse’s continuing income and overall economic circumstances.
Those issues can become especially important when the spouses leave the marriage with very different earning capacities. A person may receive a fair share of marital property and still have limited ability to replace the income that supported the household. The other spouse may continue earning at a much higher level for years after the divorce.
How Duration and Future Changes Can Affect Support
Washington law does not set a standard number of months or years of maintenance for a long-term marriage. A judge determines an amount and duration that are just under the circumstances. Two marriages of similar length can still lead to different maintenance decisions because each spouse’s financial resources and ability to earn income may differ.
Long-term maintenance also does not automatically mean lifetime support. Some orders last for a defined period, while others may continue longer when the financial circumstances support that result. The final order controls the obligation, so its wording can remain important long after the divorce is finished.
Under current Washington law, a modifiable maintenance order generally requires a substantial change in circumstances before future payments may be changed. Retirement or a major income change may raise a modification question, but neither event automatically changes the existing obligation. The court looks to the order and the circumstances surrounding the requested change.
Unless the parties agree otherwise in writing or the decree provides differently, future maintenance generally ends if either party dies. It also generally ends if the recipient remarries or registers a new domestic partnership. Those rules can matter when an order is expected to remain in place for many years.
How To Get Clarity About Long-Term Spousal Support
Spousal support after a long-term marriage in Washington can affect financial planning well beyond the date the divorce becomes final. Marriage length matters, but the court also considers each spouse’s resources and earning capacity moving forward. For someone approaching retirement or returning to work after years away, a general rule may not answer the most important questions.
If you are ending a long-term marriage and unsure what spousal support could mean for your finances, call LaCoste Family Law. Our spousal support attorneys can review your marriage’s financial history and explain how Washington maintenance laws may apply to your circumstances.