Legal calculator glossary: terms, estimates & personal planning

Alimony (also called spousal support or maintenance) is a court-ordered financial payment from the higher-earning spouse to the lower-earning spouse following a divorce or legal separation.

Basic Allowance for Housing is the second-largest component of military compensation after basic pay.

Car insurance is legally required in almost every US state, but the amount of coverage and the actual cost vary enormously — the same driver can pay 50–100% more depending on their state, carrier, and profile.

Child support is a court-ordered payment from the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent to help cover the costs of raising a child.

Disability insurance is one of the most overlooked components of financial planning.

Disability insurance needs analysis requires balancing your total disabled income (employer LTD + SSDI estimate + partner income) against your essential monthly expenses, then identifying the gap that private disability insurance must fill.

Divorce is one of the most financially significant events in a person's life, and the total cost varies by two orders of magnitude depending on how the case is handled.

Divorce costs in the United States range from a few hundred dollars for a simple uncontested filing to well over $100,000 per side for a trial-bound contested case.

Estate planning costs range from under $100 for DIY software to several thousand dollars for an attorney-drafted plan — and the right choice depends far more on your situation than on the sticker price.

Eviction is one of the most expensive and time-consuming actions a landlord can take.

The list price of a GLP-1 like Wegovy or Zepbound is over $1,000 a month, but almost nobody pays that number.

Identity theft can create direct losses, recovery work, dispute costs, and credit-report problems.

Personal injury settlement values are not arbitrary — they follow a fairly consistent framework that plaintiff attorneys and insurance adjusters both use to evaluate case worth.

Breaking a residential lease before its expiration can create a claim for rent, fees, or damages, but the amount depends on the lease, state and local law, mitigation, replacement tenants, and the reason for leaving.

Life insurance is the financial safety net that protects your dependents if you die prematurely.

For most families, long-term nursing-home care is the single largest expense they will ever face — and Medicaid is the only realistic way to pay for an extended stay.

Medicare is not free, and the bill is more than one premium. This calculator estimates your total annual Medicare cost — Part A and B premiums, the income-based IRMAA surcharge, Part D drug coverage, and optional Medigap — and compares Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and a Medigap-supplemented plan so you can see which path fits your budget and health needs.

Military pay in the United States is structured around three primary components that together form a compensation package significantly more valuable than the base-pay number alone suggests.

Net worth is the single most comprehensive snapshot of your financial health. Unlike income (what you earn) or credit score (how reliably you pay), net worth measures actual wealth accumulation — the difference between everything you own and everything you owe.

After an injury caused by someone else's negligence, your claim has two parts: economic damages you can document with bills and pay stubs, and non-economic damages — the pain, distress, and lost enjoyment of life that have no receipt.

Prenuptial agreements — once dismissed as unromantic or presumptively pessimistic — have become increasingly common across income levels as the financial complexity of modern marriages grows.

Probate cost is one of the most state-dependent numbers in personal finance. The same $750,000 estate can cost about $37,000 to settle in California and under $8,000 in Texas — a 5x swing driven entirely by which fee model your state uses.

Long-term care is one of the largest expenses most families never plan for, and the sticker price varies enormously by the type of care and where you live.

A security deposit is your money, not the landlord's — held only as security against unpaid rent and genuine damage.

Small claims court is the most accessible part of the civil justice system — designed for ordinary people to resolve money disputes without a lawyer.

Registering a trademark with the USPTO protects your brand against imitators and gives you the legal presumption of ownership nationwide.

Umbrella insurance is extra personal liability coverage that sits on top of your auto and homeowners policies, paying out after those underlying policies reach their limits.

Unemployment insurance (UI) is a joint federal-state program that temporarily replaces a portion of lost wages for workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own.

To naturalize, a lawful permanent resident must satisfy two separate residence tests measured over a statutory period: physical presence (a day-count) and continuous residence (an unbroken-residence requirement).

The VA combines multiple service-connected disabilities using a 'whole person' method that is not addition.

Wage garnishment lets a creditor take part of your paycheck to pay a debt — but federal law caps how much, and your state often protects you more.

Workers compensation is a state-mandated insurance system that provides wage replacement and medical coverage to employees who suffer work-related injuries or illnesses.

When a person dies because of another party's negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct, surviving family members have the right to seek financial compensation through a wrongful death lawsuit.

Wrongful termination is one of the most misunderstood areas of employment law. In a country where most workers are employed at-will — meaning they can be fired at any time for any reason — it is not enough to be fired unfairly or without good reason.