How Indiana calculates spousal maintenance
Indiana is one of the most restrictive states in the country when it comes to spousal support, and the vocabulary matters: Indiana doesn't call it alimony, and it doesn't treat it as a general remedy available to any economically disadvantaged spouse. Under Ind. Code §31-15-7-2, maintenance exists in exactly three narrow circumstances, and if none of them apply to your case, a court generally has no statutory basis to order maintenance at all, regardless of how long you were married or how large the income gap is between spouses.
The first category is incapacity maintenance. If a spouse is physically or mentally incapacitated to a degree that materially affects their ability to support themselves, the court can order maintenance for as long as that incapacity continues, subject to further court order. There's no fixed end date built in, because the condition itself defines the duration. The second is caregiver maintenance: if a spouse lacks sufficient property, including their share of the marital estate, to meet their needs, and that spouse is the custodian of a child whose physical or mental incapacity requires them to forgo employment, the court can set an amount and duration it considers appropriate. Again, no statutory cap — the child's need drives the timeline.
The third category, rehabilitative maintenance, is the one most divorcing spouses without a disability or a disabled child will actually encounter, and it comes with real limits. Courts weigh each spouse's education level at the time of the marriage against their education at the time the divorce was filed, whether education, training, or employment was interrupted during the marriage for homemaking or childcare, each spouse's earning capacity, and how much time and money it would take to get sufficient education or training for appropriate employment. Even where all of that points toward an award, rehabilitative maintenance is capped at a hard maximum of 3 years from the date of the final decree; a court can order less, but never more, under this category.
Fault doesn't factor into any of the three categories directly. Indiana is a no-fault divorce state, and marital misconduct, including adultery, carries no statutory weight in the maintenance decision itself. There is a related but distinct wrinkle worth knowing about: if marital funds were spent financing an affair (hotels, gifts, trips), that spending can be treated as dissipation of marital assets under §31-15-7-4. That's a property-division remedy, recovered through the split of the marital estate, not something that changes a maintenance award, which makes sense given that maintenance itself is gated to the three categories above regardless of anyone's conduct.
It's worth being precise about how Indiana's gate differs from a state like Texas, which is often cited as the other famously restrictive jurisdiction. Texas bars maintenance unless the marriage lasted at least ten years (with narrow exceptions for family violence or disability). Indiana doesn't use a marriage-length floor at all — instead, it restricts eligibility to the three specific circumstances under §31-15-7-2, regardless of how long the marriage lasted. A five-year marriage where a spouse became disabled during the marriage can qualify for incapacity maintenance; a twenty-five-year marriage where neither spouse fits any of the three categories generally cannot get maintenance at all. In practice, that makes Indiana's gate arguably tighter than Texas's, just built around different criteria.
No amendment to §31-15-7-2 has been made across the 2023, 2024, or 2025 editions of the Indiana Code. The three-category framework and the 3-year rehabilitative cap remain the controlling law through mid-2026, unchanged from prior years.
Last reviewed: July 2026. Statute citations: Ind. Code §31-15-7-2 (maintenance categories and findings); §31-15-7-4 (marital asset dissipation).
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Indiana have alimony?
Not in the way most states use the term. Indiana calls it "spousal maintenance," and under Ind. Code §31-15-7-2, it's available only in three narrow circumstances: incapacity, being a caregiver for a disabled child, or a capped rehabilitative award. There's no general, open-ended alimony like in factor states such as California or Tennessee.
How long can rehabilitative maintenance last in Indiana?
It's capped at a maximum of 3 years from the date of the final divorce decree. That's a hard statutory ceiling — courts can order less, but not more, for this category of maintenance.
Does adultery affect maintenance in Indiana?
Not directly. Indiana is a no-fault divorce state, and marital misconduct has no bearing on maintenance eligibility or amount under §31-15-7-2's three categories. However, if marital funds were spent financing an affair, that spending can be treated as dissipation of marital assets under §31-15-7-4, which affects property division, not maintenance.
What are the three types of spousal maintenance in Indiana?
Incapacity maintenance, for a spouse whose physical or mental incapacity materially affects their ability to be self-supporting; caregiver maintenance, for a spouse who lacks sufficient property and is the custodian of a child whose incapacity requires forgoing employment; and rehabilitative maintenance, capped at 3 years, for a spouse who needs time and training to reach appropriate employment.
Is Indiana maintenance the same as alimony in other states?
No. Most states allow spousal support based on a broad factor test regardless of the reason. Indiana instead gates eligibility to three specific circumstances under §31-15-7-2 — if none apply, there is generally no maintenance award available, regardless of income disparity or marriage length.