Spousal Support Wording for contingencies from a change in income(s)

[tim99]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio
Ohio

I am in the process of getting a dissolution and one item is the issue of spousal support. Currently, the way that our tentative agreement is written is that there is a dollar amount paid per month in spousal support based on our current incomes at this point (me paying her).

The duration of the payments will be for 50 months.

However, there is no contingency for when/if she gets a better paying job (she is completing grad school soon). And at some point, she will make more than she does now.

My lawyer and I are trying to get wording in the agreement to allow for this contingency. We had proposed wording to the effect of that if a 20% change in incomes occurs on either side that a new spousal support dollar amount would be calculated. So even if mine went up it would effect it too.

However, my wife/wife's lawyer are not agreeing to this to this point.

Has anyone seen/created wording to this effect in a spousal support section of a dissolution agreement? If so, is it worded something like that?

Is this something that is worded into most dissolution agreements, or it is not normal to do that? I would think that it is a normal thing, since that is the idea behind the 50/50 dissolution type agreement, I would think.

Any help would be appreciated...

[Proserpina]

Originally Posted by tim99

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio
Ohio

I am in the process of getting a dissolution and one item is the issue of spousal support. Currently, the way that our tentative agreement is written is that there is a dollar amount paid per month in spousal support based on our current incomes at this point (me paying her).

The duration of the payments will be for 50 months.

However, there is no contingency for when/if she gets a better paying job (she is completing grad school soon). And at some point, she will make more than she does now.

My lawyer and I are trying to get wording in the agreement to allow for this contingency. We had proposed wording to the effect of that if a 20% change in incomes occurs on either side that a new spousal support dollar amount would be calculated. So even if mine went up it would effect it too.

However, my wife/wife's lawyer are not agreeing to this to this point.

Has anyone seen/created wording to this effect in a spousal support section of a dissolution agreement? If so, is it worded something like that?

Is this something that is worded into most dissolution agreements, or it is not normal to do that? I would think that it is a normal thing, since that is the idea behind the 50/50 dissolution type agreement, I would think.

Any help would be appreciated...

If you do that, you're guaranteeing that she will absolutely NOT earn more until those 50 months have passed.

What does your attorney think about simply ensuring the decree is modifiable?

(For the love of all things good and chocolatey, PLEASE make sure it DOES include such verbiage, k?)

[Ohiogal]

Why don't you trust your attorney? YOur attorney should have written several agreements by now so why are you asking here? YOu can't force your wife to agree. You may be looking at a divorce and not a dissolution.

[tim99]

Thanks for the replies so quickly

I do trust that my lawyer will come up with something, but it was been about 3 weeks now, and I wanted to come up with some kind of suggestions or see if this is unreasonable to add in that kind of wording.

Also, I know my wife and she will want to work when she is done with school, so that is not the issue, which should happen early in the 50 months.

It seems like just to make the document modifiable generically, that it might be kind of pulling teeth to get it changed, and require more lawyer involvement than listing it specifically. I (and my lawyer) think it is not unreasonable to add specific wording to the fact that as incomes change that the spousal support will change, and not just that it 'can' change.

If in a year or so she makes as much as me (which could happen in her occupation) it seems like we can/should alter the amount, since it is a pretty decent sum based on her smaller income now (about 1/4 of mine) or so.

I know we'll get to some final agreement, but I would think that this is not unreasonable to add as opposed to listing it more generically.

Has anyone seen it listed out more specifcally before? Like with numbers like "if incomes change by more than xx%, then support shall be re-calculated"? Or something like that?

[Ohiogal]

Specific wording is also limiting wording. What is a 20% change from zero? My math says it is zero. Or do you mean if she gets a job at all? Or income at all?