Alimony is an important legal obligation that may begin when two Phoenix residents decide to divorce each other. The obligation binds one of the parties to provide the other with financial support, and in many cases that support is paid out each month as a regular and unchanging sum. For example, a court may order one party to a divorce to pay the other $1,000 every month until such time as the obligation may come to its legal end.
While this form of alimony is often well-suited to payers who are able to allocate a portion of their income each month to the support of their ex-spouse, there is an alternative manner of paying alimony. It is important that readers speak with their attorneys about the availability of this option to them as different divorce cases may rely on different kinds of information. As such what may work for one divorce may not work for another.
The alternative form of alimony is lump-sum alimony. As it sounds, lump-sum alimony involves the payment of a single sum from one ex-spouse to the other, and once that sum is paid the alimony relationship between the two parties is over. There are no continuing payments or ongoing relationship: the payment of a large, single sum completes the payer’s duty to the recipient.
Depending upon the circumstances of the parties there may be advantages to managing an alimony obligation through a lump-sum payment instead of ongoing payments. However, these advantages and any possible disadvantages should be discussed with one’s Chandler family law attorney. Lump-sum payments may have repercussions for both payers and recipients that should be addressed prior to their use in divorce cases.