Alimony, equitable division, and a property settlement are three different things in a Georgia divorce, and which one an award really is decides whether it can later be changed.
Three Different Things
Daniel v. Daniel, 277 Ga. 871 (2004), sorts them out. Alimony is “an allowance out of one party’s estate, made for the support of the other party when living separately.” OCGA 19-6-1(a). “Property settlement” and “property division” refer to “the determination of who owns property when its title is disputed and to the partitioning of jointly owned property.” Equitable division “differs from both”: it is the “allocation of assets acquired during the marriage to the parties, based on their respective equitable interests in those assets.”
Substance Over Labels
Courts decide what an award is “on the basis of substance rather than of labels.” In Andrews v. Whitaker, 265 Ga. 76 (1995), a jury awarded no alimony but made the husband buy his former wife an annuity and pay her half his retirement pay. The annuity, indefinite in cost, was periodic alimony whatever the label; the retirement pay, earned during the marriage, was equitable division. Likewise, in Frost v. Frost, 299 Ga. 278 (2016), a decree awarding the wife half the husband’s military retirement as alimony ending at her death or remarriage was “contrary to law”: retirement earned during the marriage is marital property, and her share had to survive both events.
Why It Matters
Periodic alimony can be modified and ends at death or remarriage. Equitable division and a property settlement are final: “Remarriage by the receiving spouse does not terminate the obligation of the paying spouse to continue payments intended as ‘lump sum alimony’ or as ‘equitable division.’” Stone v. Stone, 254 Ga. 519 (1985). And under Daniel, the Georgia label does not decide whether a debt survives the payer’s bankruptcy; what matters is whether it was really support.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!