Spousal Support & Maintenance Attorney in Buffalo, NY

Spousal Maintenance in New York: An Overview

Spousal support, called “maintenance” in New York law, is financial support paid by one spouse to the other after separation or divorce. It is governed by DRL §236B and became significantly more structured in 2015, when New York adopted a formula-based approach to both the amount and duration of post-divorce maintenance.

Maintenance serves multiple purposes: it recognizes the economic impact of the marriage on each spouse, provides financial support while the lower-earning spouse rebuilds economic independence, and compensates a spouse who sacrificed career advancement to support the family. It is not a lifetime entitlement in most cases, and courts generally aim to make it rehabilitative rather than permanent. In 2026, we are also seeing Erie County Supreme Court place increasing weight on realistic re-entry paths for lower-earning spouses, including the cost and timeline of retraining or professional recertification, when setting the duration of maintenance, rather than assuming a spouse can simply return to the workforce at a prior earning level.

Factors for Deviation from the Guideline

If the guideline amount would be unjust or inappropriate, DRL §236(B)(6)(e)(1) lists 15 factors, (a) through (o), the court must weigh before setting a different amount. In plain terms:

• The age and health of both spouses
• Each spouse’s present or future earning capacity, including a history of limited participation in the workforce
• One spouse’s need to pay for education or training
• Child support ending before maintenance does
• Wasteful dissipation of marital property, including transfers or encumbrances made in contemplation of divorce
• A household shared before the marriage, or a separate household kept before the divorce
• Acts by one spouse that have held back the other’s earning capacity or ability to get work, including domestic violence
• The availability and cost of medical insurance
• Care given during the marriage to children, stepchildren, disabled adult children, elderly parents or in-laws that held back a spouse’s earning capacity
• The tax consequences to each spouse
• The standard of living established during the marriage
• Earning capacity the recipient lost by putting off or giving up education, training or a career during the marriage
• The equitable distribution award, and the income it produces or could produce
• The recipient’s contributions as a spouse, parent, wage earner and homemaker, including to the other spouse’s career
• Any other factor the court expressly finds just and proper

The court has to put its reasons in writing or on the record when it departs from the guideline. That is why we build the record around the factors that actually fit your marriage, rather than reciting all fifteen.

One point that trips up higher-earning families: the statutory formula applies only to the payor’s income up to the cap ($241,000 in 2026). On income above the cap, an award of additional maintenance is entirely within the court’s discretion, guided by the same statutory factors: there is no automatic extension of the formula to the excess. For a step-by-step walk-through of how the two-formula calculation works and how the cap is adjusted every two years, see our guide to New York spousal support and maintenance guidelines.

Termination, Modification, and Enforcement

Post-divorce maintenance ends automatically on the death of either party. Remarriage of the recipient also ends it, though DRL §248 requires the payor to apply to the court on notice, after which the court must annul the support provisions. Cohabitation is different again: §248 permits, but does not require, termination on proof that the recipient is habitually living with another person and holding himself or herself out as that person’s spouse, and an agreement may set its own trigger. Courts can also terminate or modify maintenance based on a substantial change in circumstances, such as a significant increase in the recipient’s income or the payor’s involuntary job loss. For spouses in longer marriages nearing retirement age, it is also important to consider Social Security planning alongside maintenance: a former spouse who was married for at least ten years may be eligible to claim spousal benefits on the higher-earning ex-spouse’s Social Security record, and structuring the maintenance term with that option in mind can meaningfully affect long-term financial security.

Note: Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, maintenance paid under divorce agreements executed after December 31, 2018 is no longer deductible by the payor or taxable to the recipient. This significantly changes the after-tax economics of maintenance and affects negotiating strategy. We account for this in every case.

As we move further from that 2019 effective date, most newly negotiated maintenance agreements in 2026 are being structured with the after-tax reality already baked in: meaning the parties are negotiating the true net cost and net benefit of maintenance, rather than inflating or deflating amounts based on a deduction that no longer exists.