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# A short, brief course on community property
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/a-short-brief-course-on-community-property/
- Published: 2003-01-20T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T23:03:09.000Z
- Author: David Pisarra
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

The basics of what you need to know if you are planning on marriage, or if you are considering divorce.

Frequently when a person comes in to meet an attorney regarding a pre-nuptial agreement, or if they are considering divorce, the first thing they say is, “I know California is a community property state, but what does that mean?” The short answer is all property, income or assets which a couple acquires during marriage is to be shared equally upon divorce, with few exceptions.

COMMUNITY PROPERTY The practical meaning of community property is that if you are a legally married couple, all your income and all your assets are to be divided if you divorce. If you buy a house, and that house goes up in value, you are entitled to 50 percent of the value of the home, less its mortgage.

If you are married and you have a pension plan, whether it is a traditional plan or a 401(k), and you are putting money away for your retirement, your spouse is entitled to 50 percent of the money you contributed during marriage.

The account in which money and assets is held is not the determining factor of ownership. If you take your paycheck, and you put it into a checking account in your name only, your spouse is still entitled to 50 percent of the value of the money that you deposit. The value of the money is what the attorneys will look for when they are dividing up the assets of a marriage. The fact that your spouse is not allowed to withdraw funds from the checking account does not mean that all that money is yours. This rule is not absolute, but in general this is the law.

SEPARATE PROPERTY There are exceptions to the general rule that all income and assets acquired during marriage are to be shared. If you inherit money from your father, that is not community property. It is separate property and yours alone. You need to make sure that if you wish to keep it separate, that you do not mix the money with funds that are community, because that can cause problems.

The other exception to the general rule is that, if you have an asset that you owned before you got married, and there is income from that asset, like an apartment house, the income is considered to be separate property, so long as you don’t put it into a joint checking or savings account.

Community property is a simple concept, any money earned is to be shared. For most people this makes dividing the assets they acquire during marriage easy. Only rarely does the need really exist for a big fight over community property. Separate property can be tricky, but again, it doesn’t need to be.

If you have been married for any length of time, you will have community property, and if you have questions about whether something is or is not community property, you should always seek the review of a competent attorney in the area of Family Law. (David Pisarra is a partner in the Santa Monica law firm of Pisarra & Grist. He via e-mail at)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 20, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012003.pdf?ref=smdp.com)