How long maintenance lasts in Colorado: the duration calculator.

The guideline term is a percentage of the months of marriage: 31% at three years, rising one percentage point for every six months of marriage to 50% at twelve and a half years, and staying at 50% through twenty years (C.R.S. 14-10-114(3)(b)(II)). Five years of marriage suggests 21 months of maintenance; ten years suggests 54; fifteen years suggests 90. The court can set a different term with findings.

In whole months from the date of the marriage to the date the petition for dissolution or legal separation was filed (C.R.S. 14-10-114(8)(b)). Not the date of separation, and not the date of the decree. A couple married in June 2014 who filed in September 2026 have a 147-month marriage. For a common-law marriage the date it began is a fact the court finds.

There is no guideline term, and no guideline amount either: the guideline applies to marriages of at least three years. The court can still award maintenance on the statutory factors, typically short and rehabilitative. The calculator shows the amount the formula would produce and flags that the term is outside the guideline.

The court may award maintenance for a term of years or indefinitely, at its discretion, and may not order less than 120 months without findings explaining why (C.R.S. 14-10-114(3)(b)(II)(B)). Long-marriage cases are decided on the factors, above all the recipient’s age, health and prospects of becoming self-supporting.

No. The guideline term is advisory, like the amount. The court must consider it and then make findings on the factors: the incomes, the property each spouse takes, the lifestyle of the marriage, age and health, the length of the marriage, contributions at home, and the time needed to become self-supporting. It can order a longer or shorter term, a step-down, or a review date.

The guideline term does not apply to temporary maintenance while the case is pending, but the months paid under a temporary order are a factor the court considers when it sets the final award (C.R.S. 14-10-114(4)). In practice a long pendency with temporary maintenance can shorten the final term, and sometimes lengthen the total.

It ends on the death of either party or the recipient’s remarriage or civil union unless the order says otherwise (C.R.S. 14-10-122(2)). It can be modified on changed circumstances so substantial and continuing that the terms are unfair, unless the decree made it non-modifiable, and the motion must be filed before the term expires. Cohabitation, retirement and a recipient’s new income are the usual grounds.

Only by a motion filed before the term ends, on a showing of changed circumstances, and only if the decree does not prohibit modification. Once the last payment date has passed the court cannot revive maintenance. Calendar the end date.

No. The term comes from the length of the marriage alone; the amount comes from the incomes. A court can trade one against the other, for example a larger amount for a shorter rehabilitative period, but the guideline does not.

Enter the monthly amount in step two and the calculator multiplies it by the guideline months. For a 144-month marriage and $3,000 a month that is 71 months and $213,000. The figure is the reason the term is negotiated as hard as the amount.