Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: Arkansas’s alimony statute has no enumerated factors list at all. It governs automatic cessation on remarriage or an equivalent new relationship, security/bond mechanics, and payment structure; the amount itself is set on "reasonable" discretion, with the substantive factors developed only through case law.
The rule that changes the answer in Arkansas
Under Ark. Code Ann. § 9-12-312: “the court shall make orders concerning the alimony of the wife or the husband and the care of the children, if there are any, as are reasonable from the circumstances of the parties and the nature of the case”
“Unless otherwise ordered by the court or agreed to by the parties, the liability for alimony shall automatically cease upon the earlier of: (A) The date of the remarriage of the person who was awarded the alimony; (B) The establishment of a relationship that produces a child or children and results in a court order directing another person to pay support to the recipient of alimony, which circumstances shall be considered the equivalent of remarriage; or (C) The establishment of a relationship that produces a child or children and results in a court order directing the recipient of alimony to provide support of another person who is not a descendant by birth or adoption of the payor of the alimony, which circumstances shall be considered the equivalent of remarriage.”
What this means for duration
No statutory duration formula; automatic cessation triggers are remarriage or the two remarriage-equivalent circumstances quoted above, unless the parties agree otherwise or the court orders otherwise.
Why this matters for a later-life divorce
A common secondary-source claim is that Arkansas weighs the usual list of length-of-marriage/age/health/earning-capacity factors by statute; the statute itself contains no such list, which matters for anyone trying to predict an award from the code alone.
Read it yourself
Read the full official text before relying on any figure here. Alimony law is fact-specific and this rule is only one input to a court’s decision, not a guaranteed outcome. This is a source-backed planning guide, not individualized legal advice.
Read directly from the official Arkansas State Legislature PDF at arkleg.state.ar.us (a committee-attachment reproduction of current Arkansas Code); both § 9-12-312 and the related modification section § 9-12-314 were read in full and neither contains a factors list.
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