California is a community property state. Community property plays an important part in property distribution in a legal separation or marital dissolution; the law overseeing community property can be complicated.
Community property normally comprises of the assets and debts obtained by spouses throughout the marriage without regards to the income or contributions of individual spouses. The separate property is property that belongs merely to one spouse, together with property brought into the marriage by that spouse, for instance, real estate, pension, business, and other retirement funds. Separate property also comprises assets or debts gained by one spouse individually during the marriage; for example, loans, inheritance and property bought during the marriage with resources from that spouse's separate property.
At the Orange County Family Law Offices of Bettina Yanez, we will safeguard that your marital estate is correctly classified, that your community property is split according to California law, and that your separate property interests are secured.
Community property is to be equally divided upon marital dissolution per California law. This is easier said than done, the question is, “which assets and debts properly belong to the community, and which are separate assets? Property classifying and dividing property can be arduous. Throughout the marriage assets are usually mixed. Sometimes separate assets are used to obtain community property. Recognizing and evaluating community assets can be disputed and may present considerable tasks in the separation of assets and debts in a divorce or legal separation.
