Spousal Maintenance Estimator

18/06/2026
Knowledge

How To

The Spousal Maintenance Estimator helps family lawyers estimate potential spousal maintenance payments. Although there is no fixed formula for determining maintenance, the tool offers a structured method for assessing eligibility – considering both the applicant’s reasonable need and the respondent’s capacity to pay – while also providing an estimated amount of maintenance payable.

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The Spousal Maintenance Estimator is included in all LEAP subscriptions at no extra cost.

Key Features:

The Spousal Maintenance Estimator (SME) is designed to support family lawyers in advising clients, conducting negotiations, and preparing Court documents.

Needs Assessment: Identifies maintenance requirements by comparing the applicant’s reasonable expenses with their income shortfall.
Capacity to Pay: Assesses the payer’s income, essential expenses, and capacity to provide support after meeting their own financial needs.
Customisable Inputs: Enables entry of financial details from Part N of the Financial Statement, with the flexibility to adjust the applicant’s needs to reflect a reasonable standard of living and to refine the respondent’s capacity to pay by excluding discretionary or avoidable expenses.
Import from Ruffle: Import categorised weekly expenditure data directly from Ruffle bank statement analysis, eliminating the need to manually transcribe expenses from bank statements.
Import from Financial Statement: Import income and expenditure data directly from a financial statement saved in LEAP, reducing manual data entry.
Multiple Scenarios: Create and compare multiple scenarios within the same matter to model different income and expense assumptions and illustrate best and worst-case outcomes.
Chat with AI: Ask questions about the current scenario in natural language to quickly understand key figures and outcomes.

Getting Started

To access the Spousal Maintenance Estimator:

Open a matter in LEAP.
Click the Spousal Maintenance Estimator from the LEAP ribbon.

Scenarios

Spousal Maintenance Estimator supports the creation of multiple scenarios, allowing different income and expense assumptions to be modelled and compared against one another within the same matter.

You can view and manage all scenarios from the panel on the left-hand side of Spousal Maintenance Estimator.

Creating and Managing Scenarios

You can create a new scenario by using the + icon in the Scenarios panel header.

A Create scenario modal appears with an optional name field (pre-populated with the next sequential number, e.g. 'Scenario 2') and an optional description field.

An existing scenario can be duplicated using the duplicate icon on its scenario card, creating a copy with all values carried across. This allows practitioners to modify specific figures without re-entering data from scratch.

Scenarios can be archived using the archive icon on the scenario card. Archived scenarios are moved to a collapsed Archived section at the bottom of the Scenarios panel.

To show or hide active or archived scenarios, select the filter icon in the scenario panel header and select the relevant checkbox.

Comparing Scenarios

You can compare the assessment figures and outcomes of two scenarios side by side in a split view.

From the scenario panel, select the compare icon of the scenario you wish to compare.

A search panel appears on the right to select the scenario to compare against.

Both scenarios are then displayed side by side, each showing the Assessment Status table and outcome summary.

You can also choose to export the comparison to a word document which will be saved to your LEAP matter correspondence.

Import Features

SME can import income and expenditure data directly from documents and connected platforms, reducing manual data entry where information has already been collected elsewhere. Two import methods are available depending on what data you already have saved against the matter.

Import from Ruffle

Where a matter has bank statement data processed in Ruffle, you can import categorised weekly expenditure figures directly into Spousal Maintenance Estimator for both the Applicant and Respondent, eliminating the need to manually transcribe expenses from bank statements.

When Ruffle data is available for the matter, an Import Parts G and N expenses from Ruffle panel appears at the top of the Applicant's and Respondent's expenditure screens, showing the date range and number of accounts covered.

Selecting Import populates the expenditure table with categorised weekly figures. A confirmation prompt will appear before any existing data is overwritten.

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You should review and correct transaction categorisation in Ruffle before importing into SME.

Import from Financial Statement

Where a financial statement is saved against the matter in LEAP, SME can use AI to populate the income and expenditure tables automatically for both the Applicant and Respondent.

To use this feature, select Yes to the relevant financial statement question at the Initial Assessment step and choose the document from the Financial statement dropdown.

An Import Financial Statement details panel will then appear at the top of the income and expenditure screens for that party. Selecting Import reads the selected document and populates the fields automatically. A confirmation prompt will appear before any existing data is overwritten. Always review imported figures before proceeding.

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The financial statement must be saved to the matter in LEAP before it will appear in the dropdown. Documents created through LEAP's Forms & Precedents are detected automatically. Externally added documents must have a filename containing one of the following (case insensitive): 'Financial Statement', 'financial_statement', 'financial-statement', or 'financial.statement'.

Initial Assessment

This section requests confirmation of 4 crucial facts that are highly relevant for every Spousal Maintenance Application. These are:

Whether this claim for spousal maintenance is being made on behalf of the Applicant or Respondent.
It is possible that a party who is a Respondent in the substantive proceedings might be the Applicant in either an interim or final application for spousal maintenance, and vice versa.
Whether the client has prepared a financial statement. Selecting Yes displays a Financial statement dropdown populated with financial statement documents saved against the matter. The selected document can then be used to import income and expenditure data automatically on subsequent screens.
Whether the other party has provided a financial statement. Selecting Yes displays a Financial statement dropdown populated with financial statement documents saved against the matter. The selected document can then be used to import income and expenditure data automatically on subsequent screens.
Whether the Applicant is now married / living in a de facto relationship with a new partner.
Under s75(2)(m)/90SF(m) of the Family Law Act and 205ZK(3) Family Court Act (de factos WA), the financial circumstances of that new cohabitation is highly relevant and it is unlikely any spousal maintenance order against a former partner would be viable.

Needs Assessment

The first stage is to identify the Applicant’s need for spousal maintenance. This covers:

Applicant’s Income/adjusted income
Applicant’s Expenses/adjusted reasonable expenses
Applicant’s Need (income-expenses)

Assessment of Applicant’s Income

Collects the following information:

Applicant’s income (including total salary before tax, investment income, and income from business/partnership/company/trust)
Government benefits
Spousal maintenance currently received
Adult Child maintenance currently received
Child support currently received
Benefits from employment/business
Other income

Where a financial statement was selected at the Initial Assessment step, an Import Financial Statement details panel appears at the top of the income screen. Selecting Import uses AI to read the selected document and populate the income fields automatically.

Assesment of the Applicant’s Expenditure

Itemises expenditure areas, including:

Income tax
Superannuation
Mortgage/rent
Rates and levies
Insurance premiums
Loan repayments
All areas from Part N of the Financial Statement
Up to 10 additional expenditure areas for the user to add at their discretion

Customisable inputs to offer reasonable adjusted expenditure is also available:

In a spousal maintenance application, the applicant can claim reasonable expenses that they are currently unable to afford, if the other party has the capacity to pay them. Sections 75(2)(g)90SF(2)(g) of the Family Law Act / 205ZD (3)(g) Family Court Act (de facto WA) provide the Applicant is entitled to a standard of living that in all the circumstances is reasonable.

Applicant's Need

Calculates the Applicants need by subtracting the Applicant’s expenses/adjusted expenses from their income/adjusted income. If the Applicant’s need surpasses their income/adjusted income, then an assessment of the Respondent’s capacity to pay can proceed.

Respondent's Capacity to Pay

Establishes if the Respondent concedes to pay the Applicant’s need. If so, no assessment of the Respondent’s income and expenditure is required.

If the Respondent does not concede that they have the capacity to pay the Applicant’s needs, it proceeds to an assessment of the Respondent’s financial information.

This is similar to the Applicant’s needs assessment, but instead the calculation at the end is to identify the Respondent’s capacity to pay. The following will be required, and is presented in the same format as seen for the Applicant already:

Respondent’s income/adjusted income
Respondent’s expenses/adjusted reasonable expenses
Respondent’s capacity to pay (income-expenses)

As with the Applicant's screens, where a financial statement was selected at the Initial Assessment step, Import from Financial Statement is available on both the Respondent's income and expenditure screens. Import from Ruffle is also available on the Respondent's expenditure screen where Ruffle data is available for the matter.

Assessment of the Quantum of Spousal Maintenance Claim

Scenario 1: Respondent has capacity from income

If the Respondent has capacity from their income to pay for the Applicant’s need for spousal maintenance, an application can be made.

Scenario 2: Respondent does not have capacity from income

Choose whether it is appropriate in this case that the Respondent use his/her own capital to pay the applicant periodic maintenance.

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While periodical spousal maintenance is ordinarily paid out of income if the respondent has sufficient capital, the applicant’s legitimate claim for periodical spouse maintenance can be paid or partly paid from that capital.

If the response to this is No, the Applicant's claim will be limited to the amount the Respondent has capacity to pay from income. If the Respondent has no capacity from income, then no claim can be made.

Chat with AI

A Chat with AI feature is available throughout SME, allowing you to ask questions about the current scenario's estimate in natural language. It can be accessed at any point via the Chat with AI button in the top-right corner of the screen.

Selecting the button will open the chat window where you can select from the quick-start prompts available or type a question in the input field.

Export to Word

Once the assessment is complete, the results can be exported to a Word document by selecting the Export to Word button on the final assessment screen. The document is automatically saved to the matter's correspondence in LEAP.

Last Modified Date

18/06/2026 9:31 am

Title

Spousal Maintenance Estimator

URL Name

Spousal-Maintenance-Estimator-AU

Resolution