Updated September 17, 2026. Quick answer: Indiana has no general multi-factor alimony test: spousal maintenance is available only in three narrow, closed categories, being incapacity, caregiver of a disabled child, or rehabilitative support hard-capped at 3 years.
Married, or planning for a spouse’s death? Whether the state is a community property state, from its own statutes: Is Indiana a community property state?.
The rule that changes the answer in Indiana
Under Ind. Code § 31-15-7-2: “If the court finds a spouse to be physically or mentally incapacitated to the extent that the ability of the incapacitated spouse to support himself or herself is materially affected, the court may find that maintenance for the spouse is necessary during the period of incapacity, subject to further order of the court.”
“a court may find that rehabilitative maintenance for the spouse seeking maintenance is necessary in an amount and for a period of time that the court considers appropriate, but not to exceed three (3) years from the date of the final decree.”
What this means for duration
Maintenance is available only within three closed categories: incapacity, lasting during the period of incapacity; custodian of a child whose physical or mental incapacity requires forgoing employment, for an amount and period the court considers appropriate; and rehabilitative maintenance, hard-capped at 3 years from the final decree. There is no general open-ended award available outside these three categories.
Why this matters for a later-life divorce
A long marriage alone does not create eligibility in Indiana the way it might elsewhere: a reader must fit one of the three statutory categories, and even the broadest of them (rehabilitative) is hard-capped at 3 years, materially different from states with open-ended long-term alimony.
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.
This rule is cross-checked against a second source, the Indiana General Assembly’s own Title 31 code index.
Read directly from codes.findlaw.com’s text of Indiana Code § 31-15-7-2, independently re-fetched by this session; Justia’s mirror returned HTTP 403 and Indiana’s own official code site (iga.in.gov) serves the specific section only as client-side-rendered content with no static statute text, though its Title 31 index page itself resolves normally.
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