How Do Minnesota Courts Determine Spousal Maintenance?

In Minnesota, courts and judges make their decisions about spousal maintenance based on the factors the statutes identify in 518.522. That section identifies eight factors that the courts can use to determine whether spousal maintenance is merited, the duration of any award and the amount.

However, while the law demands that judges review these factors, it also grants them a tremendous amount of leeway in how they review them. This leaves room for a great deal of subjective interpretation, and people looking for more certainty and control over the process often negotiate their own maintenance awards. Indeed, one of the first things you should know about spousal maintenance is that fewer than 5% of all these decisions go to trial.

Eight Eye-Opening Facts About Spousal Maintenance

While most couples end up negotiating their spousal maintenance awards, it is important to enter negotiations well-informed and clear-eyed. Here are eight important things to understand about Minnesota spousal maintenance:

•      When the marital estate is large enough, it may be possible to divide it in some way that there’s no need for spousal maintenance. For example, the potential recipient of spousal maintenance might be able to earn an income from other assets awarded during the division.
•      Maintenance awards are not always permanent or indefinite. In fact, they are frequently awarded for a set, transitional duration. For marriages of five to 20 years, the courts assume any award should last no longer than half the length of the marriage.
•      Spousal maintenance awards can be subject to cost-of-living adjustments consistent with statewide cost of living increases.
•      The burden of proof initially lies with the spouse requesting the support. It’s that spouse’s job to prove that an award is necessary and that the other spouse has the ability to pay.
•      The state legislature recently revised the laws for spousal maintenance, and the new laws went into effect in August 2024. The updates introduce a greater focus on retirement and modifications to maintenance awards. They also ask whether the marital standard of living was funded by debt.
•      Maintenance typically ends if either party dies, so it is often beneficial for the party receiving spousal maintenance to secure the award with life insurance. That way, even if the other spouse passes away, the recipient would still have a source of money.
•      Some people try to double-dip when they request maintenance in a divorce that involves other assets like businesses that require complex valuations. Business owners need to ensure that a request for maintenance doesn’t rely on the same future earnings that could factor into the valuation of the business as a marital asset. Courts should recognize these efforts to double-dip and block them.
•      Many people are unaware that it’s possible to negotiate a lump-sum buyout of any maintenance award. Buyouts can settle the matter once and for all, and they can work in many ways. They may include sales proceeds from the house or a rollover of additional retirement funds from a retirement account. However, if a couple negotiates one of these buyouts, the matter is settled, and there’s no future uncertainty.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the different facts about spousal maintenance that can catch people by surprise. Still, it should help you understand why there’s more to spousal maintenance than a simple review of the eight statutory factors.

See The Big Picture

At its simplest, spousal maintenance is all about the obligor’s ability to pay versus the obligee’s reasonable needs. Of course, those factors can all vary depending on the individual circumstances of each case, and it is common for both sides to bring detailed and itemized budgets that show their monthly expenses. The court wants to look at the marital standard of living when it considers an award, and the two parties may object to claims in the monthly budgets that they say are not consistent with the marital standard of living.

I have yet to work with a client who wants to pay spousal maintenance, and the idea of facing an indefinite number of monthly payments to an ex-spouse can be frightening. This is especially true when you consider the broad discretion the court has to make its decisions. A lot of the time, if you can come to an agreement without the court’s involvement, you’ll be in a better position moving forward.