You ask your spouse for a divorce and the court orders your spouse to pay alimony. The reasoning is that you haven’t worked in years and it’s going to take time to re-enter the workforce, along with the fact that your ex is wealthy and you expected them to support you after you got married. That’s specifically why you stopped working.
You may be happy to get those alimony payments, but you may not be happy that your ex is supposed to mail you a check every month. You were looking for a bit more separation, and you don’t really want to have to be so closely involved with them. Can you ask them to pay all of the money up front?
Lump-sum alimony
You can ask for this, and it’s usually called lump-sum alimony since you’re getting the entire sum at once. It can be very beneficial to you, not only because you don’t have to be as closely connected to your ex, but because you don’t have to worry about them not paying in the future.
But it is important to note that simply asking for a lump sum doesn’t mean you’ll get it. Your ex is not obligated to give you one, and many people are not financially able to do so. They would have to pay the total amount due every month for the entire duration of years that the alimony was ordered, so a lot of the questions may just depend on your exes current financial position.
If you’re involved in a high-asset divorce or a complicated alimony situation, you always want to make sure that you know exactly what rights and legal options you have.