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EspañolWhat types of alimony are available?
There are four types of alimony in Tennessee:
Rehabilitative Alimony
The judge may award you rehabilitative alimony to help you get to the point where you can have same standard of living that you had during your marriage. Rehabilitative alimony will stop if you or your spouse die.1
Periodic Alimony
The judge may award you periodic alimony on a long-term basis if there is a big difference between your and your spouse’s income, and even with effort, you would be unable to have the same standard of living you had during the marriage. Periodic alimony ends on the date that the judge sets or if you remarry or die.2
Transitional Alimony
Transitional alimony is awarded for a specific period of time to help you adjust to being divorced or separated. Transitional alimony cannot be changed unless:
- you and your spouse agree to a change in the original court order.;
- the judge orders that the alimony award can be changed in the original court order; or
- you live with someone else (a “third party”).
If you live with a third party, the judge will assume, but you can present evidence otherwise, that the third party is either supporting you or you are supporting the third party, and therefore you do not need the same amount of alimony.3
Lump Sum Alimony
Lump sum alimony, known as alimony in solido, is ordered for a long-term, specific period of time to help provide you with financial support. It can be paid all at once (in a “lump sum”) or broken up into installments, which get paid out over time. The purpose of this form of alimony is to provide financial support to a spouse, to enable the court to fairly (equitably) divide and distribute marital property, or both. If the judge orders your spouse to pay your attorney’s fees and expenses for the divorce proceeding, the judge can include those fees in the lump sum alimony.4
Lump sum alimony can only be changed if you and your spouse agree to a change, and it will not end if you or your spouse remarry or die.5
1 TN ST § 36-5-121(2), (3)
2 TN ST § 36-5-121(f)(1)
3 TN ST § 36-5-121(g)(1)
4 TN ST § 36-5-121(h)(1)
5 TN ST § 36-5-121(h)(2), (h)(3)
