Swiss Civil Code

¹ If a spouse can­not reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted to provide for his or her own main­ten­ance, in­clud­ing an ap­pro­pri­ate level of re­tire­ment pro­vi­sion, the oth­er spouse must pay a suit­able con­tri­bu­tion.

² In de­cid­ing wheth­er such a con­tri­bu­tion is to be made and, if so, in what amount and for how long, the fol­low­ing factors in par­tic­u­lar must be con­sidered:

1.

the di­vi­sion of du­ties dur­ing the mar­riage;

2.

the dur­a­tion of the mar­riage;

3.

the stand­ard of liv­ing dur­ing the mar­riage;

4.

the age and health of the spouses;

5.

the in­come and as­sets of the spouses;

6.

the ex­tent and dur­a­tion of child care still re­quired of the spouses;

7.

the vo­ca­tion­al train­ing and ca­reer pro­spects of the spouses and the likely cost of re­in­teg­ra­tion in­to work­ing life;

8.

ex­pect­ancy of fed­er­al old age and sur­viv­or’s in­sur­ance be­ne­fits and of oc­cu­pa­tion­al or oth­er private or state pen­sions, in­clud­ing the ex­pec­ted pro­ceeds of any di­vi­sion of with­draw­al be­ne­fits.

³ Ex­cep­tion­ally, a main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion may be denied or re­duced if it would clearly be in­equit­able, par­tic­u­larly be­cause the spouse oth­er­wise en­titled to re­ceive such con­tri­bu­tion:

1.

has grossly neg­lected his or her duty to con­trib­ute to the main­ten­ance of the fam­ily;

2.

has wil­fully brought about his or her own in­di­gence;

3.

has com­mit­ted a ser­i­ous crim­in­al of­fence against the oth­er spouse or a per­son close to him or her.