Missouri Spousal Support?

[hankrearden2000]

What is the name of your state? Missouri

A male friend and coworker of mine has been informed by his wife of 13 years that she wants a divorce. But she wants HIM to be the one to initiate it by filing. There are no children involved. He is 44 and she is 56. He earns about $50,000 a year and she quit working five years ago when a terrible disease, Lupus, progressed to the point where she qualified for SS disability in the amount of about $12,000 a year. He is in good health.

However, she earned money from her daughter under the table by caring for her infant granddaughter five days a week, twelve hours a day for five years. He has about $150,000 in a 401K type account (federal thrift), she about 40,000 in a 401K. They have about $12,000 or $15,000 in the bank or CDs.

They have a house that may sell for about $150,000 and have about $40,000 equity in it. Her car is paid for and he owes about $6,000 on his. They have very little debt other than the house and car. In fact, that is probably the extent of their debt. I'm sure that they pay their credit cards off monthly, or as quickly as they otherwise can.

She will probably want the house and all equity along with her 401K and most of the cash & CDs. By federal law she has certain spouse rights to his 401K which can be modified by court order. He wants to keep all of this. Her SS disability status is reviewed periodically and she is allowed to earn about $12,000 a year without it affecting her disability.

He is concerned about how much spousal support he will be required to pay and for how long? Any ideas?

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by hankrearden2000

What is the name of your state? Missouri

A male friend and coworker of mine has been informed by his wife of 13 years that she wants a divorce. But she wants HIM to be the one to initiate it by filing. There are no children involved. He is 44 and she is 56. He earns about $50,000 a year and she quit working five years ago when a terrible disease, Lupus, progressed to the point where she qualified for SS disability in the amount of about $12,000 a year. He is in good health.

However, she earned money from her daughter under the table by caring for her infant granddaughter five days a week, twelve hours a day for five years. He has about $150,000 in a 401K type account (federal thrift), she about 40,000 in a 401K. They have about $12,000 or $15,000 in the bank or CDs.

They have a house that may sell for about $150,000 and have about $40,000 equity in it. Her car is paid for and he owes about $6,000 on his. They have very little debt other than the house and car. In fact, that is probably the extent of their debt. I'm sure that they pay their credit cards off monthly, or as quickly as they otherwise can.

She will probably want the house and all equity along with her 401K and most of the cash & CDs. By federal law she has certain spouse rights to his 401K which can be modified by court order. He wants to keep all of this. Her SS disability status is reviewed periodically and she is allowed to earn about $12,000 a year without it affecting her disability.

He is concerned about how much spousal support he will be required to pay and for how long? Any ideas?

Ok...they have approx 245,000 in assets/equity and 6,000 of debt. That leaves them roughly 240,000 to divide. If she keeps the house (assuming she can afford to refinance it into her own name, which is NOT likely), then her keeping the house, her 401k and the money in the bank, would still not be quite enough. She would still end up with about 30,000 of his 401k. It would probably be far wiser to sell the house, and for her to find more affordable housing.

The gap between her annual income and his is 38,000 and she is clearly disabled. I doubt she would be considered to be someone suitable to care for stranger's children (ie she probably could not get a license due to the Lupus) therefore earning money as a daycare provider in the future is probably not an option.

His worst case scenario is that she would get alimony that is 1/2 of the difference between their two incomes. That is 19k or just a tad over 1500.00 a month. Now that is absolutely a worst case scenario, and he could probably negotiate that down significantly if he keeps things amicable and is fair about the property settlement.

I think that the important thing is to convince her not to want to keep the house. 150k in Missouri is probably more house than she needs, and with a 110k mortgage balance is honestly more than she can afford. She would do better with something smaller, which would help him with his negotiations for alimony. The biggest issue could be health insurance, if she doesn't qualify for medicaid. She has 9 years to go until she qualifies for medicare, and she is probably uninsurable. That is a serious issue.

[nextwife]

Originally Posted by LdiJ

Ok...they have approx 245,000 in assets/equity and 6,000 of debt. That leaves them roughly 240,000 to divide. If she keeps the house (assuming she can afford to refinance it into her own name, which is NOT likely), then her keeping the house, her 401k and the money in the bank, would still not be quite enough. She would still end up with about 30,000 of his 401k. It would probably be far wiser to sell the house, and for her to find more affordable housing.

The gap between her annual income and his is 38,000 and she is clearly disabled. I doubt she would be considered to be someone suitable to care for stranger's children (ie she probably could not get a license due to the Lupus) therefore earning money as a daycare provider in the future is probably not an option.

His worst case scenario is that she would get alimony that is 1/2 of the difference between their two incomes. That is 19k or just a tad over 1500.00 a month. Now that is absolutely a worst case scenario, and he could probably negotiate that down significantly if he keeps things amicable and is fair about the property settlement.

I think that the important thing is to convince her not to want to keep the house. 150k in Missouri is probably more house than she needs, and with a 110k mortgage balance is honestly more than she can afford. She would do better with something smaller, which would help him with his negotiations for alimony. The biggest issue could be health insurance, if she doesn't qualify for medicaid. She has 9 years to go until she qualifies for medicare, and she is probably uninsurable. That is a serious issue.

So she is now 57? They married when she was 44?

Then they both likely already had assets and retirement BEFORE the marriage. ONLY the retirement,savings etc. and debts that accrued DURING the marriage are split. It is not the TOTAL debt and assets that one splits, unless all occurred following this marriage..

Was the house a premarital asset of either?

THey each need to figure out what their respective retirement account balances were going into the marriage. That should be deducted out before a split is calculated.

[acmb05]

Originally Posted by LdiJ

Ok...they have approx 245,000 in assets/equity and 6,000 of debt. That leaves them roughly 240,000 to divide. If she keeps the house (assuming she can afford to refinance it into her own name, which is NOT likely), then her keeping the house, her 401k and the money in the bank, would still not be quite enough. She would still end up with about 30,000 of his 401k. It would probably be far wiser to sell the house, and for her to find more affordable housing.

The gap between her annual income and his is 38,000 and she is clearly disabled. I doubt she would be considered to be someone suitable to care for stranger's children (ie she probably could not get a license due to the Lupus) therefore earning money as a daycare provider in the future is probably not an option.

His worst case scenario is that she would get alimony that is 1/2 of the difference between their two incomes. That is 19k or just a tad over 1500.00 a month. Now that is absolutely a worst case scenario, and he could probably negotiate that down significantly if he keeps things amicable and is fair about the property settlement.

I think that the important thing is to convince her not to want to keep the house. 150k in Missouri is probably more house than she needs, and with a 110k mortgage balance is honestly more than she can afford. She would do better with something smaller, which would help him with his negotiations for alimony. The biggest issue could be health insurance, if she doesn't qualify for medicaid. She has 9 years to go until she qualifies for medicare, and she is probably uninsurable. That is a serious issue.

She has been on disibility for 5 years she already qualifies for medicare and should be on it already.

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by nextwife

So she is now 57? They married when she was 44?

Then they both likely already had assets and retirement BEFORE the marriage. ONLY the retirement,savings etc. and debts that accrued DURING the marriage are split. It is not the TOTAL debt and assets that one splits, unless all occurred following this marriage..

Was the house a premarital asset of either?

THey each need to figure out what their respective retirement account balances were going into the marriage. That should be deducted out before a split is calculated.

Absolutely, I completely spaced that. I was thinking that the marriage was longer.

[nextwife]

Also, IF the house is a marital asset, and if she keeps it, she will need to buy out his interest, which is his share of the EQUITY, or (possibly) marital equity, not the value.

[hankrearden2000]

Thanks for the replys. They have been very helpful.