role: user

text: MO maintenance is based on what?


role: assistant

text:
Missouri maintenance is based first on the recipient spouse’s `reasonable needs` and inability to meet them independently.

Threshold under `RSMo 452.335`:
- the spouse seeking maintenance must:
  - `lack sufficient property ... to provide for his reasonable needs`
  - and be `unable to support himself through appropriate employment`

Then amount/duration are set by factors including:
- recipient’s resources
- comparative earning capacity
- marital standard of living
- obligations and assets of both parties
- duration of marriage
- age / condition
- and the payor’s ability to meet `his needs while meeting those of the spouse seeking maintenance`

Source:
- `RSMo 452.335`
- https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=452.335

So the short version is:
- `entitlement` = your unmet reasonable needs + inability to self-support
- `amount/duration` = broader balancing factors, including her ability to pay and the marital standard of living


text: what about CA maintenance?


text:
California spousal support is broader and more explicitly balance-based than Missouri.

Under `Cal. Fam. Code § 4320`, the court considers:
- each party’s ability to maintain the marital standard of living
- the supporting party’s ability to pay
- `the needs of each party based on the standard of living established during the marriage`
- obligations and assets, including separate property
- duration of the marriage
- age and health
- balance of hardships
- self-support goal
- and any other just and equitable factors

Source:
- `Cal. Fam. Code § 4320`
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM&sectionNum=4320.

For long marriages, California also keeps jurisdiction indefinitely unless support is terminated by agreement or order:
- marriages of `10+ years` are presumed long duration
- `Cal. Fam. Code § 4336`
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM&sectionNum=4336.

So the short comparison is:

- `Missouri`
  - starts from recipient spouse’s unmet reasonable needs
  - payor’s needs matter mainly as a constraint

- `California`
  - looks more openly at both parties’ needs, marital standard of living, hardships, assets, and fairness factors
  - and is structurally more receptive to long-duration support analysis

That’s why California feels closer to your fairness/symmetry framing.