Maintenance Buyout: Lump Sum or Monthly Payments?
Assumptions on sliders · method reviewed September 7, 2026
Compares monthly maintenance payments with a one-time lump sum, at the rate of return you choose. AboutLess
In plain words. Money paid over years is worth less than the same total paid today, because money in hand can be invested. This tool adds up the monthly payments, discounts them at a rate you set, and shows what the whole stream is worth now. It takes off an allowance for the chance the payments stop early, which they do if the receiving spouse remarries or moves in with a partner, or if either spouse dies. Then it shows what monthly payment a proposed lump sum would replace, and the rate of return at which the two come out equal.
Why it matters. A buyout is a real choice in many settlements. The paying spouse is done, with no petitions to modify and nothing owed if the other remarries. The receiving spouse gets certainty and control of the money, and gives up the chance the payments would have run their full course. The number that decides it is the discount rate, and each side has a different one.
An example. $2,000 a month for 72 months adds up to $144,000. At 5 percent it is worth about $124,000 today, and about $112,000 after a 10 percent allowance for stopping early. A $110,000 lump sum would replace about $1,770 a month over the same term, and the two are equal at a rate of about 9.3 percent.
Where it stops. Every input is an assumption. It ignores tax on what the lump sum earns, changes to the monthly amount by a later court order, and how each side would actually invest or borrow. For an order entered after 2018, neither form is deductible to the payer or taxed to the receiver, so tax does not tip the comparison. Everything it leaves out.
The monthly amount in the order or the proposal.
The one-time payment offered instead of the monthly payments. Enter 0 if there is no offer yet.
The remaining term. For an Illinois case, the guideline calculator on this site gives the term the formula sets.
What the money could earn each year if invested. For the paying spouse, what it costs to borrow it.
Maintenance ends if the receiving spouse remarries or moves in with a partner, or if either spouse dies. Set it to 0 to ignore that.
- Value after the chance of stopping early
- $111,767
- 10% taken off for remarriage, cohabitation, or a death
- Monthly payment the lump sum would replace
- $1,772
- $110,000 spread over 72 months at 5%
- Rate at which the lump sum equals the payments
- 9.3%
- Above this rate the lump sum is worth more than the payments. Below it, less.
A lump sum trades certainty for size. The monthly payments end if the receiving spouse remarries or moves in with a partner, or if either spouse dies. The paying spouse can also ask the court to change them. A lump-sum property settlement paid in place of maintenance cannot be changed and survives remarriage. That is the whole trade. The chart draws the lump sum invested at the discount rate and paying out the same monthly amount, next to the value of the payments still owed.
This is an assumption tool, not a rule, and the discount rate and the chance of stopping early are yours to set. It assumes level payments at the end of each month, a lump sum paid today, no tax on what the lump sum earns, and an order entered after 2018, so that neither form is deductible to the payer or income to the receiver. It leaves out a later change to the monthly amount, interest on late payments, the cost of enforcing the order, and how each side would actually invest or borrow. Method reviewed September 7, 2026. Hypothetical; educational, not advice.
This is a simplified model, not your actual tax return or plan. It only knows what you type in, leaves out rules that may apply to you, and cannot weigh the other facts and trade-offs a real decision depends on. Before you act, talk with a professional who knows your whole situation.
Educational only, not investment, tax, or legal advice. Results are hypothetical estimates that vary with each use and over time and are not guaranteed accurate or complete. Using this tool creates no client relationship with Considerate Capital, and the site that linked here is not affiliated with it. By using it you agree to the tool terms.