Alimony and Total Assets of Each Spouse

Equitable distribution is the legal process of dividing up the marital assets. Before alimony is considered, the assets are divided up. If the amount of money each spouse gets is more than sufficient to maintain the marital standard of living, an order for alimony would be less likely.

What if my spouse will end up with a lot of money from the sale of our house or a bank account?

The purpose of alimony is to maintain the marital lifestyle. In an alimony case the court is required to consider the "resources" of each spouse. Let's say the household income during the marriage as $100K/year and each spouse walked away from the marriage with $800K in assets. The amount of money each will end up with completely provides for (or exceeds) the standard of living established during the marriage. So if there is sufficient money in bank accounts or other assets to maintain the marital lifestyle, alimony would not be needed.

My spouse has a free house to live in - provided by a family member

Again, existing assets that provide basic living needs may replace the need for alimony. In other words, a free house provides an argument against an award of alimony. The idea here is that resources considered by the court during an alimony case need not be marital assets. Even assets that are non-marital and not subject to division will affect an alimony decision.

My ex-spouse receives alimony and just inherited a lot of money.

This is a situation where you can go back to court and seek a downward modification of alimony. Again, the reasoning is based on available resources. A word of caution here: if your ex receives a huge amount of money, that is not a reason for modification of your prior asset division. You cannot modify an asset division after the fact.

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