For parents involved in a divorce in Oklahoma, few issues are of higher importance than the child support obligations that accompany the divorce decree. A divorce is a traumatic event financially for any family, because the family is made into two distinct households with essentially the same income.

Child support payment are intended to ensure that the children of the divorce do not suffer unduly because of one parent attempting to punish the other parent by withholding or squandering family financial resources. And this is why child support obligations are so difficult escape. The legislature presumed that this is money that is owed to the children and would have been spent on the them, whether or not a divorce had occurred, so it is not an additional expense.

This is not to say that obtaining those payments is not a challenge, even when the payor has more than adequate resources. Former NBA player Allen Iverson earned millions from his basketball career and his ex-wife had received custody of their five children and a child support order of $8,000 per month.

Apparently, Iverson failed to make any payments and she was back in court to obtain the $40,000 in delinquent child support payments he owed. As an indication of how little she trusts Iverson to be reliable with his payments, her attorneys also took the unusual step of requesting that Iverson pay his entire child support obligation that would be owed through 2026, in a lump-sum to a trust for the children.

This would ensure that they receive the payments and would prevent his wasting of the assets, since he is retired and presumably has a limited ability to earn income at the level of a NBA player.