Understanding spousal maintenance can be a critical part of navigating divorce or legal separation in Arizona. Whether you’re seeking financial support or responding to a request for it, the process can feel daunting without experienced legal guidance. At Provident Law®, our Scottsdale family law attorneys are here to help you make sense of Arizona’s spousal maintenance laws, advocate for your interests, and work toward a fair and sustainable resolution.
Defining Spousal Maintenance
Spousal maintenance is a sum of money that a court orders an individual to pay to a current or former spouse in the context of a dissolution of marriage or legal separation case. Typically, spousal maintenance awards are limited to cases in which one spouse earns much more than the other. The purpose of a spousal maintenance order is to allow a spouse to have adequate income from the other spouse for a set period to allow them to become self-sufficient.
Reasons Justifying a Spousal Maintenance Award
Under A.R.S. § 25-319, the court may grant a maintenance order for either spouse if it finds that the spouse seeking maintenance is in any of the following situations:
- A spouse with a lack of sufficient property, including property apportioned to the spouse, to provide for his or her reasonable needs.
- A spouse with limited earning ability in the labor market is still able to be self-sufficient.
- A parent with a child whose age or condition is such that he or she should not be required to seek employment outside the home.
- A spouse who has made a significant financial or other contribution to the education, training, vocational skills, career, or earning ability of the other spouse or has significantly reduced his or her income or career opportunities for the benefit of the other spouse.
- A long marriage involving a spouse who may be unable to work to be self-sufficient due to his or her age.
Determining the Amount and Duration of Spousal Maintenance Orders
The Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines (2025) are designed to achieve predictable outcomes and avoid inconsistencies in spousal maintenance cases. Attorneys use these Guidelines in conjunction with the Spousal Maintenance Calculator.
A court must use the spousal maintenance amount that the Guidelines and Calculator generate, unless the court finds in writing that application of the Guidelines would be “inappropriate or unjust.” More specifically, a judge can deviate from the amount of spousal maintenance ordered under the Guidelines based on consideration of the following relevant factors:
- The standard of living established during the marriage.
- The length of the marriage.
- The age, employment history, earning ability, and physical and emotional condition of the spouse seeking maintenance.
- The ability of the spouse from whom maintenance is sought to meet that spouse’s needs while meeting his or her own needs.
- The financial resources of each spouse, including their comparative earning abilities in the labor market.
- The contribution of the spouse seeking maintenance to the earning ability of the other spouse.
- The extent to which the spouse seeking maintenance has reduced that spouse’s income or career opportunities to benefit the other spouse.
- The ability of both parties to contribute to the future educational costs of their mutual children.
- The financial resources of the party seeking maintenance, including marital property apportioned to that spouse, and his or her ability to independently support himself or herself.
- The time necessary to acquire and the availability of sufficient education or training to enable the party seeking maintenance to find appropriate employment.
- Excessive or abnormal expenditures, destruction, concealment, or fraudulent disposition of community, joint tenancy, and other property held in common.
- The cost for the spouse who is seeking maintenance to obtain health insurance and the reduction in the cost of health insurance for the spouse from whom maintenance is sought, if any.
- All actual damages and judgments from conduct resulting in a criminal conviction of either spouse in which a spouse or a child was the victim.
Furthermore, marital misconduct, such as having an affair during the marriage, does not impact the amount or duration of a spousal maintenance order.
If the spouses agree, a spousal maintenance order in either a dissolution of marriage or a legal separation case can be permanent and non-modifiable. Otherwise, the court retains jurisdiction over the maintenance issue for as long as the maintenance order is in effect.
Recent Revisions to the Arizona Spousal Maintenance Guidelines
Recent revisions to the Guidelines apply to all initial spousal maintenance awards dated on or after September 1, 2025. These revisions made substantial changes to the previous version of the Guidelines.
For instance, the Guidelines no longer include mortgage principal payments in the spousal maintenance calculation, which often artificially inflated amounts of spousal maintenance orders. The Guidelines now also allow judges to consider temporary orders (prior payments that one spouse made to the other during dissolution or separation proceedings) and shared community expenses in determining spousal maintenance orders.
Next, the Guidelines significantly change the formula for determining the duration of a spousal maintenance order. While the order’s length is still based on the length of the marriage, the revised chart adjusts the percentage scale for both short- and long-term marriages. Likewise, revisions to the Calculator reflect these adjustments, including revised income caps and more detailed entry fields.