Editorial Policy

1. Why We Published This Policy

SpousalCalc.com publishes family law calculators — a category where wrong numbers lead to wrong decisions in divorce settlements, child support orders, and life-transition financial planning. Our users are often in stressful circumstances and rarely have a second source to cross-check. That asymmetry obligates us to publish our editorial standards, so users can judge whether our process meets the bar their decision requires.

This policy covers: sourcing rules, fact-checking process, update schedule, correction protocol, conflict-of-interest disclosure, and authorship attribution.

2. Sourcing Rules

Every legal claim on this site traces to one of the following primary source categories, in priority order:

1. Statutory text. The actual state or federal code (e.g., California Family Code §4055, 750 ILCS 5/504, UK MCA 1973 s.25, Canada Divorce Act R.S.C. 1985, c. 3 (2nd Supp.)). We cite section numbers.
2. Court rules and administrative orders. For jurisdictions where support guidelines are in court rules rather than statute (e.g., Arkansas Administrative Order No. 10, Delaware Melson Formula rules, New Jersey Appendix IX-F).
3. Official government calculators and agency publications. IRS Publications, SSA Program Operations Manual System (POMS), Services Australia, UK DWP step-by-step guides, CRA/Revenue Canada bulletins.
4. Federal/state supreme court decisions. For jurisdictions where key doctrines come from case law (e.g., White v White in UK, Duxbury calculations, Armstrong factors in Mississippi).

Secondary sources — legal treatises, bar association guides, academic journals — may supplement but never replace primary sources.

What we do not cite: law firm marketing content, blog posts by non-specialists, Wikipedia as a primary source, or chatbot-generated summaries.

3. Fact-Checking Process

Every calculator goes through four checkpoints before publication:

1. Statute cross-read. The formula is read back against the statute text. All input variables, caps, thresholds, and adjustments must map to specific statutory provisions.
2. Independent calculator verification. Where an official state or country calculator exists, our output is checked against it using three test cases: low-income, median-income, and high-income scenarios.
3. Worked example audit. A realistic example is walked through step-by-step, with each arithmetic step shown in the page content.
4. Legal review for high-consequence calculators. Our five highest-traffic reference calculators (California CS, New York CS, Florida Alimony, Illinois Alimony, UK Child Maintenance) are reviewed by contributors with Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) or Certified Family Law Specialist credentials.

4. Update Schedule

Annual Reviews (January)

• IRS inflation adjustments (standard deduction, tax brackets, estate/gift tax exemption, ACA thresholds)
• Federal Poverty Level updates (CSSA Self-Support Reserve, low-income adjustments)
• Social Security Administration COLA (spousal/survivor benefits)
• State minimum wage changes (affecting CA low-income adjustment, NH CS thresholds)
• Annual gift-tax exclusion and estate tax exemption

Quarterly Reviews (April, July, October)

• State family law legislation monitoring via NCSL and state legislature trackers
• Cross-verification of top-20 highest-traffic calculators against official government tools
• Content freshness audit — any "effective date" or "updated" reference older than 18 months is flagged for review
• Source link validation — broken .gov links are replaced

Event-Driven Updates

When substantive family law changes occur, we target a 30-day update window. Recent examples:

• California SB 343 — effective September 1, 2025. K-factor moved from gross to net income; LIA threshold raised to $2,929/mo; add-on allocation changed from discretionary to mandatory pro-rata.
• Washington EHB 1014 — effective January 2026. Economic Table expanded to $50,000/mo combined income; Self-Support Reserve raised to 180% FPL.
• New York CSSA cap adjustment — effective March 1, 2026. Combined income cap raised from $183,000 to $193,000 (biennial CPI adjustment).
• Florida SB 1416 — effective July 1, 2023. Permanent alimony eliminated; durational caps set at 50%/60%/75% of marriage length; 35% of net income differential as amount ceiling.

5. Correction Policy

We will make mistakes. When we do:

1. Report it. Email [email protected] with the URL, the inputs, the result you got, and the result you expected (with a source if possible).
2. Acknowledgement within 72 hours. We will respond confirming we received the report and are investigating.
3. Resolution. Verified errors are corrected in the calculator code. A changelog entry is published.
4. Attribution. Reporters who request credit are named in the changelog. Reporters who request anonymity are respected.
5. Material errors. If an error materially changed results for a common use case, we flag the correction on the affected page for 90 days.

6. Conflict of Interest Disclosure

SpousalCalc is independently owned and operated. We disclose the following to ensure users can judge our incentive structure:

• We do not receive referral fees from law firms, attorneys, financial advisors, mediators, or divorce service companies.
• We do not have undisclosed affiliate relationships with any product or service recommended on this site.
• When we say "consult a family law attorney," the accompanying link goes to state/national bar association directories, not to paid directory services.
• Our revenue model is non-intrusive display advertising served via contextual (not behavioral) targeting, with no sharing of user input data.
• We publish editorial content before determining ad placement. Advertisers have no input into calculator formulas, content, or source selection.

7. Authorship & Review Attribution

Calculator formulas, content, and legal citations are developed by our in-house editorial team. High-consequence calculators (our "reference tier") receive additional review from contributors with relevant credentials — Certified Divorce Financial Analysts (CDFAs), Certified Family Law Specialists, and CPAs specializing in divorce taxation.

We do not publish per-author bylines on individual calculators because the production process is collaborative: statute research, implementation, cross-verification, and content writing often involve multiple team members on a single page. Credentials for specific reviewers are available on request at [email protected].

8. Use of AI Tools

We use large language models as research assistants for drafting preliminary content summaries and surfacing relevant statutory provisions. We do not publish AI-generated legal claims without human verification against primary sources. Every statute citation on this site has been read by a human on the editorial team from the primary source.

9. User Trust Expectations

SpousalCalc calculators are designed to help users:

• Understand the math behind a potential support order, settlement, or tax consequence
• Prepare informed questions for conversations with attorneys, CPAs, or financial advisors
• Evaluate settlement offers or compare scenarios before committing

SpousalCalc calculators are not designed to:

• Replace legal advice from a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction
• Replace financial planning advice from a certified professional
• Produce numbers suitable for direct submission to a court as final calculations

10. Policy Changes

This Editorial Policy is reviewed annually. Material changes are logged at the bottom of this page with a change summary and effective date.

Policy history:

• April 18, 2026 — Initial publication

Contact

Questions about this Editorial Policy, or requests for reviewer credentials for a specific calculator, should be sent to [email protected].