There are a few different types of spousal support available and each type of spousal support has a goal for awarding the support. There are four standard type of spousal support that could be awarded to a spouse – depending on the state and what their jurisdiction permits.

To begin with, there is temporary spousal support. This type of spousal support is granted during the divorce proceeding. A divorce proceeding could take years to resolve and during that time period, one spouse may be substantially disadvantaged financially. One spouse may have been a stay at home parent for the past 20 years and has no income. If her soon to be ex spouse stops financially providing for her, so could risk being homeless – unless she can obtain work. The only problem with that is she has stayed home for 20 years and it is not that easy to just jump back into the work force. Temporary spousal support is used to support one spouse during the proceeding, until a judge can make a final decision about the matter. It will allow the spouse to live their life as closely to what it was before the divorce began as possible. This is just one example of many possible scenarios for why temporary orders for spousal support can be decided at the beginning of the proceeding, rather than making the spouses wait until the end.

Now, just because a judge may grant temporary spousal support for say $2,000 a month, that does not mean that the judge will also grant $2,000 a month in spousal support at the end of the divorce proceeding. The point of temporary spousal support is to provide the spouse with financial security while the judge makes a decision. It is temporary, and could go up and or down when the judge makes the final decision. Once the judge does grant temporary orders for spousal support, it will be effective as soon as you separate from your spouse.

The next type of spousal support is a short-term type of spousal support. This type of spousal support is meant to be rehabilitative for one of the spouses.  It is also referred to as the “bridge the gap” type of spousal support. This type of support was designed to help the dependent spouse get back on their feet and have the ability to support themselves after the divorce. This could apply to a lot of different situations. The most common scenarios would include stay at home spouses. This would include the standard stay at home spouse, who raises the family and tends to the house. This type of spouse has likely spent a good portion of their adult life living this type of lifestyle and it would take some time for them to adjust to living a life where they are the primary source of income in their household.

For marriages that are shorter, it will likely be a quicker process for the dependent spouse who has spent less time in the home as a dependent. This is likely the case for dependent spouses to care for the home while the other spouse attends school to better himself or herself. It is not uncommon for one spouse to stay home while the other attend school, and then once that spouse has completed their program, for the other spouse to them go back to school. Overall, the length of the marriage will be a major factor to determine first of all, whether or not rehabilitative spousal support is appropriate for this dependent spouse, and second how long the support should be. No matter the scenario, the rehabilitative spousal support will end once the dependent spouse has the ability to support themselves either through a new job or a new educational path. Because of this, the length of this type of support will vary from person to person.

The next type of spousal support is a long-term method. This is a permanent method of spousal support, meaning that it could require one spouse to pay another spouse until the dependent spouse remarries or passes away. This type of support is used for marriages that have lasted more than ten years and has a dependent wife that the judge determines will most likely not enter into the workforce again. This type of support is not available in all of the states. Also, in many states, if the dependent spouse begins to live with another individual in a manner that mimics a marriage – the court may determine that spousal support should end. All the different types of spousal support will end if the dependent spouse either dies or remarries. Because this is well known, many people will avoid remarrying in order to keep recovering spousal support. For this reason, many people chose to just live their lives with a new partner without marriage. But if the court catches wind of this, they are likely going to cut off spousal support all together.

Finally, there is reimbursement spousal support. This type of support is the only spousal support that is not based solely off financial need. It is actually determined based off a spouse who sacrificed education, training, or career advancements during the marriage by taking odds and ends jobs while the other spouse trained for a lucrative career. It is a common understanding that the spouse who made the sacrifice would benefit from the higher standard of living once the other spouse obtained their desired career. If the marriage ends before that spouse gets any of the expected benefits of the other spouses desired career, reimbursement spousal support aims to rebalance the scales between the spouses by making the spouse return some of what was given during the marriage. It will be a subjective decision to determine when this type of spousal support will end, and that will be whenever the judge feels as if everything is as close to balanced out as it can be between the spouses.