New Jersey Lawyer Blog
With New Jersey’s Alimony Reform Act of September 2014, the burden of proof in showing why alimony should or should not end with retirement shifted from the payor to the recipient. Before that date the payor had to show why alimony should end at retirement. After that date, it became the recipient’s burden to prove that alimony should not end at full retirement age. The Alimony Reform Act also made it possible for New Jersey courts to consider prospective retirement as well as actual retirement as a reason to terminate or modify alimony.
One of the reasons cited for the change was to give supporting spouses the ability to determine what their financial situation will be upon retirement before making a final decision on when to retire. However, the meaning of the term “prospective retirement” was left open to interpretation.
In April 2016 the concept of “prospective retirement” came before Judge Jones of the Ocean County Superior Court, Family Part, when the case Mueller v. Mueller was brought before him.