In a Massachusetts marriage of more than 20 years, a court has discretion to order alimony of indefinite duration, with no preset durational cap. Below 20 years, the maximum length is set as a percentage of the months you were married.
After thirty or forty years, no part of a later-life divorce is argued harder than support. When a marriage has lasted thirty or forty years, the financial lives of both spouses have grown deeply intertwined: one career may have been built while the other tended to a household, raised children, or stepped back from the workforce entirely. Understanding how alimony in a long term marriage works under Massachusetts law is essential to understanding what support may look like before you are asked to agree to it. The rules that govern a thirty-year marriage are meaningfully different from those that apply to shorter unions, and those differences favor neither spouse automatically.
The length of your marriage, the income each of you earns, and, uniquely for spouses divorcing near retirement, the timing of when the paying spouse retires can all reshape what support looks like. For a fuller picture of how the Commonwealth structures spousal support, our spousal support and alimony resource provides the broader framework into which the long-marriage rules below fit.
How Massachusetts Defines a Long-Term Marriage
Massachusetts alimony is governed by the Alimony Reform Act, codified at M.G.L. c. 208, §§ 48 through 55. One of the most consequential features of the Act is that it ties the *duration* of general term alimony to the *length* of the marriage. For most marriages, the Act caps how long alimony may last as a percentage of the number of months the couple was married: the longer the marriage, the longer the permissible support period.
But the Act treats the longest marriages differently. For marriages that lasted longer than twenty years, the court is not bound by a preset durational limit at all. Instead, the court *may* order general term alimony for an indefinite length of time. This does not mean alimony is automatic or permanent in every long marriage; it means the rigid percentage caps that govern shorter marriages fall away, and the court has discretion to set duration based on the full circumstances of the couple. For spouses who have been married most of their adult lives, this is the single most important distinction to understand.
The Durational Tiers at a Glance
The table below summarizes how marriage length connects to the maximum duration of general term alimony under the Alimony Reform Act. Read it as a map of the statutory tiers rather than a prediction for your own case, and bear in mind that a court retains discretion to deviate where the interests of justice require.
| Length of marriage | General term alimony, maximum duration guideline (M.G.L. c. 208, §§ 48 through 55) |
|---|---|
| 5 years or less | Up to 50% of the number of months married |
| More than 5, up to 10 years | Up to 60% of the number of months married |
| More than 10, up to 15 years | Up to 70% of the number of months married |
| More than 15, up to 20 years | Up to 80% of the number of months married |
| More than 20 years | Court may order alimony for an indefinite length; no preset durational cap |
The bottom row of that table is the heart of the long-marriage analysis. Crossing the twenty-year threshold changes the question from “how many months” to “what is fair given everything before the court.” That shift is why couples divorcing after a long marriage should not assume the percentage formulas they may have read about apply to them.
How Much: The Income-Difference Guideline
Separate from duration is the question of *amount*. Under the Alimony Reform Act, the amount of general term alimony generally should not exceed the recipient spouse’s need, or 30 to 35 percent of the difference between the spouses’ gross incomes established at the time the order is issued. In practice, a court looks at the gap between what each spouse earns and uses that 30 to 35 percent band as a guidepost for setting support, always measured against the recipient’s actual need and the paying spouse’s ability to pay. Because that gap is measured after the marital estate is settled, the way assets are allocated in property division can shape the income picture the court ultimately weighs.
What counts as “income” for this purpose is broad. It generally includes salary and wages, but courts may also consider bonuses, commissions, self-employment earnings, and other regular sources of income. For later-life divorces, income from pensions, certain retirement distributions, and investment returns can enter the analysis as well, which is one reason the calculation grows more complex, not simpler, as couples approach retirement. How those accounts are valued and split, a subject we address in our guide to dividing retirement savings in a gray divorce, can directly affect the retirement income a court later treats as available for support. The precise treatment of any given income source is fact-specific and should be confirmed for your circumstances rather than assumed.
The Long-Married Spouse Who Left the Workforce
A career set aside for the family is not invisible to a Massachusetts court. In many long marriages, one spouse paused or ended a career to support the family: raising children, managing a household, or following the other spouse’s professional path. Decades later, that spouse may have limited recent work history and reduced earning capacity through no fault of their own.
Massachusetts law recognizes this reality. In weighing alimony, courts consider factors such as the length of the marriage, the age and health of each spouse, the employability of the recipient, the lifestyle established during the marriage, and the economic and non-economic contributions each spouse made, including contributions as a homemaker. For a spouse who stepped away from earning to invest in the marriage, these factors can be significant. The goal of general term alimony in a long marriage is to address an ongoing need that arose from the way the couple structured their shared life, not merely to bridge a short transitional gap. How these factors apply to your situation depends on the details, which is precisely the kind of thing to review with counsel.
Retirement: The Pivotal Gray-Divorce Issue
Retirement is the single most important variable in a gray-divorce support order. For couples divorcing near retirement, the most important nuance in the entire Act is how retirement affects alimony. The Alimony Reform Act provides that the paying spouse’s attainment of full retirement age (the age at which that spouse is eligible to receive full Social Security retirement benefits) is a recognized basis on which general term alimony may be modified or terminated. In other words, reaching full retirement age can serve as grounds to revisit an existing support order.
This matters enormously in a gray divorce, where the paying spouse may already be within sight of retirement when the order is first entered. A support figure that makes sense while a spouse is still working full-time may look very different once that spouse retires and the steady paycheck stops. The Act does not make termination automatic at retirement, and a court can consider the circumstances of both spouses in deciding whether, and how much, to modify. But the existence of this provision means something concrete. Retirement isn’t only a personal milestone here. The statute treats it as a trigger that can change the support landscape.
Both the spouse who may one day seek to reduce support and the spouse who relies on receiving it should plan with this provision firmly in view. For couples whose orders are entered close to retirement, the question of what happens when the paying spouse retires deserves direct attention at the outset rather than as an afterthought years later. Our overview of the types of alimony available in Massachusetts can help you understand where general term alimony fits among the Commonwealth’s support categories as you weigh these timing questions.
Practical Next Steps for Late-Life Divorcing Spouses
If you are facing divorce after a long marriage, a few measured steps can help you approach support with clarity:
- Confirm whether your marriage crosses the twenty-year threshold. This single fact changes the durational analysis and is worth pinning down early.
- Take an honest inventory of both spouses’ income sources. Salary, pensions, retirement distributions, and investment income can all bear on the amount of support.
- Map out the retirement timeline. If the paying spouse is near full retirement age, build that reality into your planning from the start, because it can become grounds to modify the order later.
- Account for a career set aside for the family. If you left the workforce to support the marriage, that history is relevant to how a court views your needs.
Above all, recognize that long-marriage alimony rewards forethought. The decisions made when an order is first shaped, and the way retirement is anticipated, can shape your finances for years to come.
Taking the Next Step
If you are divorcing after a long marriage and want clarity on what alimony may look like in your circumstances, a confidential consultation is the natural first step. From our office in Woburn, Massachusetts, Greco Law and Associates PLLC handles spousal support matters with discretion and persistence, and with the close client relationships that later-life divorce deserves. When your interests require it, we will go to trial for your rights.
This article offers general educational information about how Massachusetts treats alimony in long marriages; it is not legal advice, and the right answer depends on the specifics of your situation.
