Your circumstances changed.
Florida law gives you a path to change the order.

Florida law now recognizes a rebuttable presumption that alimony should be modified or terminated when you reach normal retirement age — as defined by the Social Security Administration, or the customary retirement age for your profession. That presumption is meaningful. It shifts the burden to the recipient to show why support should continue when your income changes.

You don't have to wait until you've retired to act. Florida allows anticipatory modification filings up to six months before retirement. Filing early locks in your position while your income is still steady and gives the court time to act before the income change actually happens. Waiting until after you retire — and after the support obligation has continued at the old level — costs money you won't get back.

The court considers ten factors in retirement modification cases, including your age and health, your profession's customary retirement age, your motivation for retiring, and the economic impact on the recipient. Allyson has handled retirement modification cases across Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Hernando counties. She'll tell you whether your situation qualifies and what the filing strategy looks like.

An involuntary loss of income — a layoff, a medical situation, a business that contracted, a career shift that reduced your earnings — is the kind of change Florida's modification statute was written for. The support obligation you agreed to was based on your income at the time. If that income has changed substantially, materially, and permanently, the obligation may need to change with it.

The threshold matters. The change has to be substantial — not a bad quarter, not a temporary slowdown. Courts look at whether the change is likely to be permanent and whether it was involuntary. A voluntary income reduction — taking a lower-paying job to avoid paying support — won't qualify. An involuntary one, properly documented, generally will.

The timing of the filing also matters. A modification only goes back to the date the petition was filed — not the date your income changed. If you've been paying at the old level for months since your income dropped, that money is gone. Allyson gives you a straight assessment of whether your situation qualifies and what filing now — versus waiting — actually costs you.

If the person receiving alimony is living with someone new in a relationship that functions economically like a marriage — shared expenses, pooled finances, mutual support — Florida law provides a path to reduce or terminate that obligation. The statute calls it a supportive relationship, and it doesn't require a marriage license. It requires proof that the relationship reduces the recipient's financial need.

The burden structure matters here. You have to first prove the supportive relationship existed within the 365 days prior to filing. Once you do, the burden shifts — the recipient has to show why support should continue despite the new arrangement. The court then weighs 11 specific factors: how they present themselves publicly, whether they share finances, whether they support each other's children, whether they hold property jointly, and more.

Building the factual record to trigger that burden shift is the core of the case. Allyson has handled supportive relationship cases across Tampa Bay. She knows what evidence courts find persuasive and how to structure the case to get the burden where it needs to be.

When the person paying alimony files for modification, the person receiving it has to respond — and the response matters. The burden of proof shifts differently depending on what ground they're filing on, but in every case the recipient has a right to present evidence, challenge the claimed change in circumstances, and argue why the support should continue at its current level.

The most common challenges come at retirement, after an income change, or when the ex claims you're in a new relationship. Each has a different legal framework and a different strategy. A retirement modification that doesn't meet the good-faith requirement can be opposed. An income change that turns out to be voluntary — or temporary — doesn't qualify. A supportive relationship claim that isn't supported by the evidence falls apart under the 11-factor analysis.

Extending the duration of support is a higher bar — clear and convincing evidence of exceptional circumstances, typically a significant disability or caregiving situation. But defending the current amount against a reduction is more straightforward. Allyson represents recipients in modification proceedings and gives you a realistic picture of what the other side's petition is likely to produce.

Florida's 2023 alimony reforms eliminated permanent alimony and introduced strict durational caps — but they did not automatically modify existing orders. An alimony obligation entered before the reforms took effect remains in force under the terms it was written. The new law doesn't reach back and rewrite old judgments.

What the reforms did do is change the landscape for modification petitions going forward. If you have an older order and your circumstances have changed — retirement, income loss, a new relationship on the recipient's end — the modification standard is still substantial, material, and permanent change. But what a Florida court would award today under the new framework is relevant context for what a modification should produce. An order that would look dramatically different under current law, combined with a genuine change in circumstances, is a modification case worth evaluating.

The interaction between old orders and new law is one of the most active areas of Florida family law right now. Allyson has been handling modification cases through the transition and knows how courts are applying the new standards to older obligations. A consultation will tell you whether your order is worth revisiting.