April Showers Brought May Flowers: How the Openshaws Prepared for Rainy Days Ahead

Just in time for the rainy season, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court shed new light on what it means to "live" a certain lifestyle as a married couple and how those habits should be reflected in post-divorce alimony. The case, Openshaw v. Openshaw (2024), revolved around a couple who, during their marriage, didn't just focus on living well but also on saving wisely. When their marriage came to an end, the question arose: should their habit of saving be considered part of their marital lifestyle for the purposes of determining the appropriate amount of alimony?

The court's answer was a resounding YES. In essence, the court argued that saving isn't just a financial strategy; it's a way of life. For the Openshaws, who enjoyed a generous annual income far exceeding their living expenses, setting money aside wasn't merely about preparing for a rainy day. It was a consistent part of their lifestyle.

The Openshaw decision clarifies a previously debated issue under the Alimony Reform Act. The Young v. Young decision hinted at this possibility by limiting the automatic inclusion of future increases in the payor’s income and highlighting the importance of the marital lifestyle at the time of the divorce as the appropriate benchmark for setting the amount of future alimony. However, the Young decision didn’t go as far as defining savings as part of the marital lifestyle, and the pre-Act case of Cooper v. Cooper specifically overturned an “alimony award that exceeds current need, so as to permit accumulation of assets or savings for the future.” It was a debatable question whether the “marital lifestyle” language in the Act overrode the Cooper limitation, until now.

The implications of this are significant. When determining the need for support, courts can look beyond current spending habits to consider the entire scope of how a couple lives. This includes saving for the future. This means that in divorces where both parties have the financial means, both can be expected to maintain not just the living standards they enjoyed while married but also the saving habits that were part of their marital lifestyle.

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