divorce-property

[rc356s]

For of those of you have gone through it may be you can shed some light on a few questions I have. I am not married but I am thinking about getting married in the very near future. I have a house and a few cars. Would I be entitled to them if I was to divorce because I owned them before the marriage? I hate to think that way but I've worked to darn hard to get to where I am. My S.O. would be bringing very little to the marriage in terms of finance. What about 401K and retirement savings would all that automatically be hers? I am in california, anyway I would like to hear some advice.
Thanks.

[nostatic]

hmmm...I guess it is good and bad that you are thinking this way. CA is community property, but what you bring in to the marraige is your and isn't community. BUT, things can get pretty cloudy pretty fast unless you have paper backing up when/where you got things. A pre nup should be able to make all that stuff crystal clear. The biggest issue is if you are going to be making a lot more money than she does. If so and you divorce, you could get hammered with alimony.

[juanbenae]

i have often wondered the same thing. a pre-nup? i'd love a fool proof way to open that topic with a wife to be,,, and still have her willing to be.....

[Neilk]

It's one of those questions you have to ask on the first or second date while you are getting to know the person.

PLANT THE SEED EARLY.

[pbs911]

Disclaimer: I am not your attorney and I am not offering any legal advise. If you want legal advise you need to see an attorney.

Ok, here is what I remember from school. . .

What ever your bring into the marriage in terms of material possessions is separate property. It becomes community property if there is a transmutation. For example, if you own a home and use your marriage income to make improvements on that home the dollar amount of the improvements is not proportionally community property (the marital property value increases / decreases in accordance with proerty value). To keep it individual you would have to use only premarital property (such as rent from the property) to make improvments.

Any wages earned during the marriage are community property. If you put any of that money into your separate property then it proportionally becomes community property.

A transmutation of separate property to community property can take place with as simple a statement as "everything that is mine is yours." It does not work the other way around from community property to separate property.

Unless your house is fully paid for, any mortgage payment (or property tax payment for that matter) made from wages earnings during the marriage will tranmutate that $$ amount of the house to community property. To show what share is owned by each you would be required to trace back the exact $ contribution.

Keep everything separate and well documented, including bank accounts, tax filing, stocks, interest, etc. However, if you mix comminity property with separate property you have probelms tracing it bach and there is a good argument that you are treating separate property as comunity property and a transmutation has taken place.

Once you get marriage, a portion of your retirement plan begins to transmute into community property. No way around it. The longer the marriage the more your retirement plan becomes community property. (This is true even if the marriage ends before your retire.)

If you are well off and don't intend for your spouse to contribute anything to the marriage, and you will be the sole provided, get a prenp to that extent.

Ca also has a rebutal presumption that marital property is split evenly at 10 years. That's why you see people, such as Tom Cruise, getting divorced after 9.5 years. Well, that and Penelopy Cruise. Think of Eddie Murphy's joke about the african bride he brought from the jungle to Los Angles who after living in luxery decided she wanted a divorce and "half Eddie, I want half!"

In other words, don't get married if you have a doubt. Life is too short to get married for the sake of being married.

[asphaltgambler]

If you have more than 2 cents to rub together, consult a good attorney in you area BEFORE she even moves in, let alone get married.

Today's man has virtually no rights after the fact. Courts favor the woman even though she may make more $$ than you. If you have kids?? Forget about it. Laws do vary by state but by and large it's a woman's world when it comes to the big "D" / assets.

Protect yourself and your future earnings, retirement and 401K by THINKING ahead.

By the way.......if you only have 2 cents to your name, she'll get 1 and her attorney will get the other 1 and bill you for an addtitional 1 !!