In the Slovenian legislation, a lifetime alimony contract is regulated in Articles 557–563 of Chapter VI of the Code of Obligations (the OZ).

A lifetime alimony contract is an obligation law contracts creating obligations for both (or all) contracting parties, with at least one of the parties being obliged to give, do, or give up something, while the other party is entitled to it. One of the essential features of a lifetime alimony contract is randomness or risk, meaning that the benefit or burden of the contracting parties are not determinable at the time of concluding the contract, and that the parties cannot know their mutual obligations. This risk is therefore part of the contractual basis, since the contracting parties cannot know their mutual obligations as they depend on the seriousness of the illness and disability of the alimony recipient, and on how long they would have to be taken care of. When concluding the contract, the alimony donor knows what they will receive but does not know what they will actually have to give since this depends on the death of the alimony recipient.

The lifetime alimony contract must be prepared in the form of a notarial act, failing which it shall be considered as null and void. This is also confirmed by the case law, namely the judgement of the Celje Higher Court, ref. no. Cp 102/2020 of 14 May 2020, which states that a contract that is not concluded in the prescribed form is null and void if nothing else arises from the purpose of the regulation which determines the form (first paragraph of Article 55 of the OZ). Legal transactions for which the legislation prescribes that they must be concluded in the form of a notarial act must be concluded in such a form, with such transactions which are not concluded in the form of a notarial act being null and void (Point 4 of Article 47 and Article 48 of the Notariat Act).

With a lifetime alimony contract, one of the contracting parties (the alimony donor) undertakes to support the other contracting party or another person (the alimony recipient), while said other contracting party declares that they leave to said alimony donor their entire estate or a part of their estate which consists of real estate and moveable property intended to use and enjoy said real estate, whereby their release is postponed until the death of the transferor. The contract may also include other movable property of the alimony recipient, which must be specified in the contract. Contracts in which a community of life or a community of property are agreed upon in exchange for a promise of inheritance, or for a promise that one of the contracting parties will take care of the other contracting party and protect them, cultivate their estate and arrange their funeral after their death, or perform another action with the same purpose, are also considered lifetime alimony contracts.

The alimony recipient may waive the disposal of the property which is the subject of the lifetime alimony contract for the benefit of the alimony donor. After the death of the alimony recipient, the alimony donor is not responsible for their debts, but it can be specified in the contract that the latter will be responsible for the existing debts of the former to certain creditors.

A lifetime alimony contract may also be terminated. The contracting parties may terminate the concluded lifetime alimony contract by mutual agreement even if they have already commenced the performance of the contract. If the parties to the lifetime alimony contract live together and if their relationship deteriorates to a point where living together becomes unbearable, each of the contracting parties may request the court to terminate the contract. Any of the contracting parties may request the contract to be terminated if the other contracting party fails to fulfil its obligations. Pursuant to the judgement of the Ljubljana Higher Court, ref. no. I Cp 1247/2021 of 21 September 2021, the consolidated position of the case law claims that the legal order, in principle, tends to preserve the contract rather than terminate it, and considers the termination of the contract as an extreme measure and not as a sanction that would depend entirely on the contracting party’s perception of their current position. The position that the contracting party from whose personal sphere the reason for non-performance of the contract originates could always demand the termination of the contract would run counter to the principle of good faith and fair dealing (Article 5 of the OZ) and the prohibition of abuse of rights (Article 7 of the OZ). Thus, the assessment of whether there is a failure to fulfil the obligation justifying the termination of the contract, as well as the assessment of whether circumstances have changed to such an extent that the contract can no longer be maintained (these two assessments cannot be strictly separated) must therefore take into account the interests of both contracting parties.

If, after the conclusion of the lifetime alimony contract, the situation changes to a point where the performance of the contract becomes significantly compromised, the court shall, at the request of the party, re-arrange the contractual relationship or terminate it, taking into account all the circumstances. The court may transform the right of the alimony recipient into a lifetime annuity, if both parties agree with this arrangement.

In the event of the death of the alimony donor, their obligations are passed to their spouse and to their descendants, adopted children or their descendants who are called to succession, if they agree to it. If they do not agree to the continuation of the lifetime alimony contract, said contract is terminated and they do not have the right to claim compensation for previous alimony. If the spouse, descendants, adopted children or descendants of the adopted child cannot assume contractual obligations, they have the right to claim compensation from the alimony recipient, whereby said compensation is set out at the discretion of the court, taking into account the financial situation of the alimony recipient and of those who were entitled to the continuation of the lifetime alimony contract.

If the alimony recipient dies, the alimony donor is entered into the land register with the lifetime alimony contract and the proof of death of the alimony recipient, and is not bound by probate proceedings. The property which is the subject of the lifetime alimony contract is not a part of the estate and does not belong to the estate.