How Long Does Alimony Last in NY?

How Long Does Alimony Last in NY? Spousal Maintenance Duration Under DRL § 236(B)(6)

How long alimony lasts in NY is governed by an advisory schedule tied to the length of the marriage. Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(6)(f)(1) suggests maintenance for 15 to 30 percent of a marriage of up to 15 years, 30 to 40 percent of a marriage of 15 to 20 years, and 35 to 50 percent of a longer marriage.

That schedule is a starting point, not a ceiling or a floor. A New York judge may order a longer term, a shorter term, or in the right case maintenance with no end date at all, and several events cut an award off before the scheduled end. Duration is decided on evidence, which is why it is worth understanding before anyone signs a settlement.

Cedeño Law Group, PLLC represents spouses on both sides of the maintenance question across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Founding partner Peter L. Cedeño has centered his practice on New York matrimonial and family law since 1994. This page sits inside our guide to New York family and divorce laws, and it covers the duration schedule, how the length of the marriage is measured, when a court departs from the range, and what ends maintenance early.

How Long Does Alimony Last in a New York Divorce?

It runs for a percentage of the length of the marriage. DRL § 236(B)(6)(f)(1) gives New York courts an advisory schedule with three bands, and the longer the marriage, the higher the percentage range and the longer the presumptive term of post-divorce maintenance.

The schedule reads as follows:

• 0 up to and including 15 years of marriage: maintenance payable for 15 percent to 30 percent of the length of the marriage.
• More than 15 up to and including 20 years of marriage: maintenance payable for 30 percent to 40 percent of the length of the marriage.
• More than 20 years of marriage: maintenance payable for 35 percent to 50 percent of the length of the marriage.

Duration is a separate question from amount. The dollar figure comes from the statutory formula and the income cap, which our New York spousal maintenance law page walks through in detail. A spouse can win the argument on the monthly number and still lose badly on the term, because a modest award that runs for twelve years is worth far more than a generous award that runs for two.

How Is the Length of the Marriage Measured for New York Maintenance?

From the date of the marriage to the date the divorce action is commenced. DRL § 236(B)(6)(b)(8) defines length of marriage as the period from the date of marriage until the date of commencement of the action, not the date of separation and not the date of the judgment.

That definition carries real weight in New York City cases, where spouses often live apart for years before anyone files. A couple married in June 2010 who separated in 2018 but did not file until August 2026 has a sixteen-year marriage for maintenance purposes, which moves the case out of the first band and into the 30 to 40 percent range.

Timing of the filing is therefore strategic, and our New York spousal maintenance attorneys treat it that way. A spouse sitting just under a band boundary should understand what waiting costs and what filing now protects, before the summons goes out.

What Does the Duration Schedule Mean in Real Numbers?

Applying the percentages to common marriage lengths gives the realistic negotiating range. A 10-year marriage points to roughly 18 months to 3 years of maintenance, an 18-year marriage to roughly 5.4 to 7.2 years, and a 25-year marriage to roughly 8.75 to 12.5 years.

Worked through, the advisory ranges look like this:

• A 5-year marriage: roughly 9 months to 18 months of maintenance.
• A 10-year marriage: roughly 1.5 years to 3 years.
• A 15-year marriage: roughly 2.25 years to 4.5 years, still inside the first band.
• An 18-year marriage: roughly 5.4 years to 7.2 years, because the percentage range jumps at the 15-year line.
• A 25-year marriage: roughly 8.75 years to 12.5 years.

Notice how much turns on a single year. A 15-year marriage tops out around 4.5 years of maintenance under the schedule, while a marriage of 15 years and one month opens at 5.4 years. That cliff is one of the most consequential facts in New York maintenance practice, and it is invisible to anyone who has only read the percentages without doing the arithmetic.

Can a New York Judge Order Maintenance Longer or Shorter Than the Schedule?

Yes. The schedule is expressly advisory under DRL § 236(B)(6)(f)(2). A court may set a duration above or below the suggested range, and it must set forth in a written decision or on the record the factors it considered in reaching the term it chose.

That written-reasons requirement is an advantage for the side that built a record. A judge who must explain the duration on the record is a judge who needs evidence to point to, and the party that supplied the evidence usually supplies the explanation. A party who showed up with nothing but argument gives the court nothing to work with except the midpoint of the range.

Because the term is discretionary, duration is a genuine point of advocacy in a New York City divorce rather than a clerical calculation. Our NYC spousal maintenance attorneys develop the record on the facts that move the term in either direction, because the difference between three years and nine years of payments is decided on that evidence.

Which Factors Push the Duration Toward the High End of the Range?

The statutory factors in DRL § 236(B)(6)(e)(1) drive the term. Age and health, earning capacity, the time and training one spouse needs to become self-supporting, and career opportunities given up during the marriage carry the most weight when a court sets duration.

The factors a New York court weighs include:

• Age and health of both parties: a spouse in their late fifties has a shorter runway to rebuild earnings than a spouse in their thirties.
• Present and future earning capacity: including any period of the marriage spent out of the workforce.
• Need for education or training: and the time and expense required to complete it.
• Reduced earning capacity from forgone opportunities: the promotions, licenses, and credentials that lapsed while one spouse ran the household.
• Standard of living during the marriage: a Manhattan lifestyle built on two incomes does not survive on one.
• Care of children, stepchildren, disabled adult children, or elderly parents: caretaking that limited a spouse’s employment.
• Acts that inhibited earning capacity: including domestic violence as defined in the statute.
• Availability and cost of medical insurance: a real number in New York, not an afterthought.
• Wasteful dissipation of marital property: assets spent or hidden by either spouse.
• The equitable distribution of marital property: and the income that distribution will produce.
• Tax consequences to each party: and the contributions of each as spouse, parent, wage earner, and homemaker.

Several of these factors run through the property side of the case as well, which is why maintenance duration and equitable distribution in New York get negotiated together. A spouse who receives income-producing assets in the division may need a shorter term of support than a spouse who receives an illiquid share of a closely held business.

When Does a New York Court Award Non-Durational Maintenance?

In long marriages where the recipient is unlikely to become self-supporting. DRL § 236(B)(6)(f)(2) provides that nothing prevents a court from awarding non-durational maintenance in an appropriate case, meaning support with no fixed end date, subject to later modification.

Non-durational maintenance, which people often call lifetime alimony, tends to appear in marriages of very long duration where one spouse is at or near retirement age, has a serious health condition, or has been out of the workforce for decades with no realistic path back into it. It is not the default outcome in a long New York marriage, and it is not available simply because a marriage lasted twenty-five years.

Even a non-durational award has ends built into it. It still terminates on the events described below, and it remains open to modification if circumstances change substantially. Our New York City divorce attorneys handle these awards from both sides, whether the goal is securing indefinite support or holding the term to a defined number of years.

What Ends Spousal Maintenance Early in New York?

Three things end post-divorce maintenance before the scheduled term expires. Under DRL § 236(B)(6)(f)(3), maintenance terminates on the death of either party, on the payee’s valid or invalid marriage, or on modification under DRL § 236(B)(9)(b) or DRL § 248.

Broken out:

• Death of either party: the obligation ends on the death of the payor or the payee. Where a recipient depends on the support, life insurance securing the award is negotiated into the agreement.
• The payee’s valid or invalid marriage: the statute reaches an invalid marriage as well as a valid one, so a ceremony later found defective does not preserve the support.
• Modification: either party may apply to change the award on the grounds described below.

Parties can also write their own termination events into a settlement agreement, and many New York agreements do. A well-drafted stipulation states plainly what ends the obligation, what happens if the payor loses a job, and whether the term can be extended at all.

Does Living With a New Partner End Alimony in New York?

Not automatically. Under DRL § 248, remarriage requires the court to annul the support provisions, but cohabitation is discretionary: the payor must prove the payee is habitually living with another person and holding himself or herself out as the spouse of that person.

That second element is where these applications are won and lost. Proof of a new relationship, or even a shared apartment, does not satisfy the statute on its own. New York courts look for the outward holding out, the presentation to the world as spouses, and a payor who files without that evidence usually pays for the motion and keeps paying the maintenance.

Our New York spousal maintenance attorneys evaluate these applications honestly before anything is filed, because a premature § 248 motion damages credibility with the court on every issue that follows it.

How Does Retirement Affect How Long You Pay Alimony in New York?

Retirement matters twice. DRL § 236(B)(6)(f)(4) requires the court to consider anticipated retirement assets, benefits, and retirement eligibility age of both parties when setting duration, and DRL § 236(B)(9)(b)(1) allows modification on actual full or partial retirement of the payor.

At the time of the divorce, a court setting the term must look forward to when each spouse will realistically stop working and what retirement income each will have. A maintenance term that runs years past the payor’s normal retirement date invites a modification application the moment that retirement arrives.

After the judgment, actual retirement is a recognized basis to seek a change, but only where the retirement results in a substantial change in financial circumstances. A voluntary early retirement taken to escape an obligation is treated differently than a mandatory or health-driven one, and the record on that point decides the motion.

Can Maintenance Duration Be Changed After the Divorce Is Final?

Yes, on a showing under DRL § 236(B)(9)(b)(1). A court may annul or modify a maintenance award made after trial on the payee’s inability to be self-supporting, on a substantial change in circumstances including financial hardship, or on the payor’s actual full or partial retirement.

Awards that come out of a settlement agreement are harder to disturb than awards set by a judge after trial, because the agreement’s own terms control what may be modified and on what showing. This is one more reason the language in a New York stipulation of settlement deserves as much attention as the numbers in it.

A New York prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can also fix the duration of maintenance in advance, or waive it entirely, provided the agreement meets the execution and fairness requirements that make it enforceable. Where such an agreement exists, its terms usually override the advisory schedule altogether.

How Do Our New York Spousal Maintenance Attorneys Handle Duration Disputes?

By building the duration record from the first meeting. Our New York spousal maintenance attorneys treat the term as its own contested issue, with its own evidence, rather than as a number that follows automatically from the length of the marriage.

The approach runs in stages. Early on, the length of the marriage is fixed against the commencement date and the band boundaries are identified, so that filing timing is a decision rather than an accident. In discovery, the statements of net worth, employment records, and medical proof that support or defeat a long term are gathered and preserved. Where earning capacity is genuinely disputed, a vocational expert is retained to establish what the recipient can realistically earn and how long retraining will take.

From there, the case is prepared for the two ways duration actually gets decided. In negotiation, the schedule sets a frame both sides recognize, and the factor evidence determines where inside that frame the deal lands. At trial, the same evidence supports the written decision the court is required to make. Our NYC divorce attorneys prepare every maintenance file as if a judge will set the term after reading the whole record, because that assumption is what makes the settlement offer a fair one.

Why Choose Peter L. Cedeño for Your New York Spousal Maintenance Case?

Experience with the way New York courts actually set duration. Peter L. Cedeño has practiced New York matrimonial and family law since his admission in 1994 and has centered his private practice on these matters for more than 25 years.

Mr. Cedeño is a graduate of Pace University School of Law and is admitted in New York and in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the New York State Bar Association, is an alumnus of the New York City Bar Matrimonial Law Committee, participates in the Matrimonial Forensic Inter-Disciplinary Forum, and lectures on divorce and family law issues for the New York State Bar Association. He began his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.

Contact a New York Spousal Maintenance Attorney About How Long Alimony Will Last

How long maintenance runs often matters more than the monthly figure, and the term is far easier to shape before a settlement is signed than after. Cedeño Law Group, PLLC is located at 111 Broadway, Suite 811, New York, NY 10006, and represents spouses in matrimonial matters throughout New York City and the surrounding counties.

Contact our New York spousal maintenance attorneys to talk through where your marriage falls on the advisory schedule and what evidence would move the term in your favor.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Updated 2026. This page reflects New York’s advisory post-divorce maintenance duration schedule under Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(6) as in effect in 2026. It is general information, not legal advice for any individual case or situation.