Stop This Attack on Spouses at Retirement

I urge you to vote NO on SB1250 (Gregory), a bill that would unilaterally terminate spousal maintenance when the paying spouse reaches retirement age. This legislation is a devastating attack on the economic security of vulnerable spouses, and it must be stopped. This bill is deeply flawed and represents a harmful retreat from the individualized justice that our family courts should provide. By creating a rigid, automatic termination trigger, this legislation strips judges of their ability to consider the unique circumstances of each case and prioritizes a formula over fairness. Spousal maintenance is not a reward or a punishment. It is a tool to correct economic imbalances that often arise from a long-term marriage. In many relationships, one spouse sacrificed their own career and earning potential to manage the household or raise children, directly enabling the other spouse’s career success. The current law rightly requires judges to consider a wide range of factors (including the marriage’s duration, the recipient’s age and employability, and the standard of living established) before setting a maintenance award. This bill undermines that entire framework. It assumes that a payor’s retirement automatically ends the recipient’s need for support, which is often not the case. A spouse who stayed home for 25 years does not suddenly gain a pension or work history simply because their former partner has reached retirement age. For many, especially older women who face significant barriers to re-entering the workforce, the loss of maintenance could be financially devastating, pushing them into poverty in their later years. The bill’s presumption that six months’ notice is “reasonable” is another point of failure. Preparing for the complete loss of a primary income stream is a monumental life change. Six months is rarely enough time for a displaced homemaker to find stable housing, secure sufficient employment, or restructure their entire financial life. Finally, by eliminating judicial discretion, the bill invites more litigation, not less. Couples will be forced back to court to argue over the definition of “retirement” or to seek a modification that the court could have handled more equitably from the start. Instead of creating automatic, one-size-fits-all deadlines, we should trust our judges to do what they are sworn to do: weigh the evidence and issue orders that are just and equitable for both parties, based on the real-world circumstances of their lives. We urge you to oppose this unnecessary and damaging legislation.