Support After a Long Marriage

After twenty five years the question is rarely whether support is payable. It is how much, for how long, and what happens when the income that funds it stops.

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Advisory GuidelinesIndefinite DurationRule of 65Retirement

Without Child Support Formula | 1.5 to 2 Per Cent Per Year | 50 Per Cent Ceiling

How duration is actually decided.

Twenty years of marriage or more, and duration is normally indefinite.

The rule of sixty five: length of marriage plus recipient age at separation.

Indefinite means not time limited. It does not mean it can never change.

Retirement is the most common ground for variation in this age group.

Quick Answer

How long does spousal support last after a long marriage in Ontario?

Where there are no dependent children, the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines apply the without child support formula. The range for amount is one and a half to two per cent of the gross income difference for each year of cohabitation, capped at fifty per cent of the difference at twenty five years. Duration is ordinarily half a year to one year of support for each year of cohabitation, but the Guidelines provide for indefinite duration where the marriage lasted twenty years or more, or under the rule of sixty five where the years of cohabitation plus the age of the recipient at separation total sixty five or more. Indefinite means the order or agreement sets no end date. It does not mean the support can never be varied or ended.

Ontario law · Reviewed by Lexaltico LLP, Toronto · Arrange a consultation

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THE FORMULA

What the Guidelines Actually Produce

The Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines are not law. They are not binding on a court and there is no statute enacting them. In practice they are used in almost every Ontario negotiation and most judgments, because both sides know roughly what a court will do with them.

For a couple with no dependent children the formula is straightforward in structure. Take the difference between the two gross incomes. Multiply by between one and a half and two per cent for every year the parties lived together, including any period of cohabitation before marriage. At twenty five years the multiplier reaches its ceiling of fifty per cent of the difference and stops rising.

The output is a range, not a number, and the range is wide. On a two hundred thousand dollar income gap after thirty years of marriage the low and high ends can be tens of thousands of dollars a year apart. Where within that range a case lands is the negotiation, and it turns on the actual facts of the marriage rather than the arithmetic.

INDEFINITE DURATION

A Word That Frightens People Unnecessarily

Where the marriage lasted twenty years or more, the Guidelines do not set an end date. The same applies under the rule of sixty five, which catches shorter marriages where the recipient was older at separation. A fifteen year marriage ending when the recipient was fifty meets it.

Indefinite is a term of art and it is badly named. It means duration is not specified at the outset, not that support is permanent and unchangeable. Support can be reviewed, varied on a material change in circumstances, or ended. Many indefinite orders are in fact terminated years later.

The reason long marriages are treated this way is straightforward. After thirty years of shared decisions about whose career came first, it is usually impossible to say when the economic consequences of those decisions will have run out. Rather than guess a date, the Guidelines leave it open and let the facts decide later.

RETIREMENT

The Issue Every Long Marriage Eventually Reaches

A payor who retires at sixty five and whose income falls by seventy per cent will generally seek to reduce or end support. Whether that succeeds depends heavily on whether the retirement was reasonable, whether it was foreseeable when the order or agreement was made, and whether the pension being drawn is the same pension that was already divided on separation.

That last point is the one that generates the most litigation. If a pension was valued and equalised at separation, and the payor then retires and draws that pension, treating the whole of it as income for support can amount to paying twice for the same asset. Courts have grappled with this repeatedly and the answer is fact specific.

All of which is a strong argument for dealing with it in the agreement rather than leaving it. A well drafted separation agreement for a couple in their late fifties says what happens on retirement, at what age, and how the previously equalised portion of the pension is treated. That single clause prevents a court application ten years later.

SETTLING IT

Review, Release, or a Lump Sum

A negotiated settlement has options a court order does not readily offer. The parties can agree a review at a defined event such as retirement, rather than requiring a material change to be proved. They can agree a step down over time. They can agree a final release with no support at all, balanced by a larger share of the property.

A lump sum is worth considering in this age group. It ends the relationship cleanly, removes the risk of the payor dying or ceasing to pay, and removes the risk of the recipient having to litigate at seventy five. It also carries different tax treatment from periodic support, which has to be modelled before anyone agrees to it.

These are exactly the trades that mediation and four way negotiation handle well and that a trial handles poorly. A judge deciding a contested case chooses between two positions. A negotiation can build something neither party proposed.

WHAT WE WILL ASK FOR

The Evidence That Moves the Range

Three years of tax returns and notices of assessment for both parties, current pay information, and pension statements. Where either party controls a corporation, the corporate financial statements, because personal income is only the starting point where a company is involved.

Then the history of the marriage, which is what actually decides where in the range a case lands. Who moved for whose job. Who left work, for how long, and what that cost them. What the standard of living was. Whether there is a health issue affecting either party capacity to work.

This is not intrusive for its own sake. In a long marriage the compensatory case is built almost entirely from that history, and a file that has it documented settles at a better number than a file that has only the tax returns.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the rule of sixty five?

A Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines rule under which duration is indefinite where the years of cohabitation plus the age of the support recipient at separation total sixty five or more. It applies to marriages shorter than twenty years.

Does indefinite support mean forever?

No. It means no end date is set at the outset. Support can still be reviewed, varied on a material change, or terminated. Many indefinite orders end during the payor lifetime.

Are the Advisory Guidelines binding?

No. They are not legislation and no court is bound by them. They are used in most Ontario negotiations and judgments because they are a reliable predictor of outcome.

Can I stop paying support when I retire?

Not automatically. Retirement is a common ground for variation but the court will consider whether the retirement was reasonable and foreseeable, and whether the pension income was already accounted for when property was divided.

Can support be paid as one lump sum?

Yes, if both parties agree, and sometimes by court order. It gives finality and removes future enforcement risk, but the tax treatment differs from periodic support and should be modelled first.

Does time living together before marriage count?

Yes. The Guidelines measure the length of cohabitation, which includes any period of living together before the marriage.

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Support After a Long Marriage

How long does spousal support last after a long marriage in Ontario?

Speak to a Family Law Lawyer

What the Guidelines Actually Produce

A Word That Frightens People Unnecessarily

The Issue Every Long Marriage Eventually Reaches

Review, Release, or a Lump Sum

The Evidence That Moves the Range

What will child support cost?

Frequently Asked Questions

Speak to Us About Support After a Long Marriage

Lexaltico LLP

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