When one spouse can’t yet stand on their own after divorce, we help you pursue or defend a fair spousal support arrangement under Texas law.
Texas courts can order spousal maintenance, but the eligibility rules are among the most restrictive in the country, and awards are capped in both amount and duration. Much of the support that actually shapes lives in Texas divorces is negotiated instead: contractual alimony, designed as part of the property settlement. Knowing which track fits your case is the first strategic question.
At Hicks Family Lawyers, we treat support as one lever inside the whole financial structure of the divorce. The right answer usually lives in the interplay between maintenance, property division, and cash flow, and reading that interplay is where corporate financial depth earns its place.
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Eligibility has two hurdles. The spouse seeking maintenance must show they will lack sufficient property, including their separate property, to provide for their minimum reasonable needs, and must also meet at least one qualifying condition. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.051. [1]
The qualifying conditions include:
Texas adds a further presumption: maintenance is not warranted unless the requesting spouse has exercised diligence in earning income or developing the skills to do so during separation and while the case is pending. That presumption is rebuttable, and building the record to meet it starts early. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.053. [2]
The amount is capped. A court may not order monthly maintenance above the lesser of $5,000 or 20 percent of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.055. [3]
Duration is capped by the length of the marriage. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.054:[4]
Maintenance based on disability, or on care of a disabled child, can continue as long as the eligibility persists. Otherwise, courts order the shortest reasonable period that allows the spouse to become self-supporting, absent a compelling impediment to earning sufficient income.
Within those limits, courts look at the whole picture. The statutory factors include each spouse’s financial resources and ability to meet their own needs, education and employment skills, the duration of the marriage, age and health, contributions as a homemaker, contributions to the other spouse’s education or earning power, property brought to the marriage, and marital misconduct by either spouse. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.052. [5]
These cases are won on financial evidence: what the household truly costs, what each spouse can truly earn, and what the property division already provides. We build that picture with precision.
Contractual alimony is support by agreement, and it is where sophisticated settlements do their real work. Amount, duration, security, and payment structure are designed rather than capped, usually as one piece of the overall property architecture.
For business owners and high earners, contractual alimony can trade against asset division: more support for less equity, or the reverse, depending on liquidity and continuity needs. The advantage is structure, and structure is designed, not defaulted into.
While the case is pending, temporary spousal support keeps both households functioning until the final structure is in place.
After the decree, long-term spousal maintenance is reserved for the qualifying circumstances above, most often long marriages and disability, and its duration is planned against the statutory ceilings.
When substantial earnings meet the statutory caps, high-income spousal support disputes turn on how income is characterized and proven, and on how support interlocks with the division of the estate.
Court-ordered maintenance terminates on the death of either party or the remarriage of the recipient, and a court shall end it on finding the recipient is cohabiting with a romantic partner on a continuing basis. Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.056. [6] Contractual alimony ends according to its own terms, which is one more reason those terms deserve careful design.
We start from the whole balance sheet, not the maintenance statute alone. Support, property, and cash flow are one system, and moving any lever moves the others.
Whether you expect to pay or to receive, the standard is the same: a support outcome that is predictable, defensible, and built to last, inside a settlement that protects what you have built.
Support decisions are made inside a larger financial structure:
Support done well is quiet: it bridges the transition, respects both households, and ends on schedule because the structure worked. That is the outcome worth designing toward.
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Common questions
No. Court-ordered maintenance requires proving both insufficient property for minimum reasonable needs and a qualifying condition. Many spouses who would receive support in other states do not qualify in Texas, which is why negotiated alternatives matter here.
Up to five, seven, or ten years depending on the length of the marriage, with disability-based awards able to continue while the disability persists. Courts order the shortest reasonable period, not the maximum.
The lesser of $5,000 per month or 20 percent of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income. Contractual alimony negotiated by agreement is not bound by that cap.
Maintenance is ordered by a court under the statute’s strict eligibility rules and caps. Contractual alimony is agreed support built into the settlement, with terms the spouses design themselves, and it is the more common vehicle in substantial estates.
It can. Marital misconduct by either spouse is a statutory factor in setting maintenance, and fault can also influence how the community estate is divided. Neither effect is automatic; both are argued with evidence.
[1] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.051 (Eligibility for Maintenance) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.8.htm#8.051
[2] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.053 (Presumption) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.8.htm#8.053
[3] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.055 (Amount of Maintenance) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.8.htm#8.055
[4] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.054 (Duration of Maintenance Order) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.8.htm#8.054
[5] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.052 (Factors in Determining Maintenance) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.8.htm#8.052
[6] Tex. Fam. Code sec. 8.056 (Termination) | https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.8.htm#8.056
