My mom and dad got divorced something like 28 years ago. He paid her a lot of money at first to keep the house and pay bills and such until the divorce was final. Then it was something like $250/month. Dad married my step-mom 10 or 11 years after the divorce.

My dad died in 2017. I come to find out my step-mom is still paying my mom the $250/month.

I asked my mom why she's taking money from step-mom and I've asked step-mom why she's paying dad's alimony. Mom says if step-mom doesn't pay, then I have to and step-mom says that dad told her that the divorce agreement says she gets money until she dies.

Step-mom never signed anything. I can't imagine being obligated to something that I never agreed to. Of course step-mom can do anything she wants with her own money but it all seems terribly horrid of my mom to do this.

The question is, are there really stipulations in divorce agreements that says any future spouse has to continue alimony payments after death of the other person?

Could be. Child support obligation does not end with the death of the obligor but continues as an obligation of his/her estate. Sometimes alimony does too. You would need to read the divorce decree.

quote:

Originally posted by MelissaDallas:
Could be. Child support obligation does not end with the death of the obligor but continues as an obligation of his/her estate. Sometimes alimony does too. You would need to read the divorce decree.

There was no child support in this case. We were all adults.

I only have experience with my divorce, but talking to my attorney during the process it seems like there are some pretty crazy divorce contracts. Of course he may have told me the stories he did in order to convince me to hire him

While it sounds unbelievable I’d say you need to get a copy of the document and read it for yourself.

I'm guessing the money is from your Dad's retirement which is probably still being paid to stepmom

This all came up because this month my wife’s ex’s employer contacted her saying that she’s going to be receiving half of his retirement. She told them no because she’s remarried and doesn’t want it. That actually was in the divorce papers but they didn’t accept it and didn’t care.
She did a lot of paperwork and had to work against her attorney’s protests to get them to stop it before it started to allow him to actually retire in a couple months. She and I can’t imagine taking money from someone the we haven’t earned. Besides that, he can move away and she doesn’t have to see him anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
I'm guessing the money is from your Dad's retirement which is probably still being paid to stepmom

That I do not know but it’s a good point. I’m going to have to look at a copy of the divorce paperwork.

I would imagine that things vary greatly from state to state. I recently divorced (2019), I pay her alimony, $2400/month. That continues until she remarries or one of us dies. I also have to carry $500,000 in life insurance with her as beneficiary.

There is language in the papers that say the alimony continues if I decide to remarry, (not going to happen) but nothing about my new spouse having to continue the alimony after I die.

You are always better off settling divorce affairs on the front-end vs. leaving a potential quagmire for your children. Sometimes it is not financially feasible to do so - but I have see plenty of folks who could have taken a little pain up front and avoided a lot of BS on the back-end of life.