(0:00 – 0:14)
Welcome to Family Law Matters. I’m Dr. Michael Mantell, joining Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, who is the owner and managing partner of the highly esteemed Primus Family Law Group. Hi, Bonnie.
(0:14 – 0:23)
Hi, Michael, how are you doing? Doing well, thank you for asking. How about you? I’m doing well today. Good, glad to hear that.
(0:24 – 0:43)
Bonnie, the question that I wanna focus on in this segment of Family Law Matters is community property versus separate property. In a divorce, people come with owning property. By property, I don’t necessarily mean real estate, but all kinds of things that they’ve had before they came into the marriage.
(0:43 – 1:10)
Can you talk a little bit about some of the complications that people face in understanding what’s mine versus what’s ours? So the definition of separate property, everything you had before you got married and everything you have after you were separated, and it also includes inheritances. That’s separate property. Community property, everything you acquired during the marriage.
(1:11 – 1:30)
Now, here’s how people confuse that and make attorney’s jobs more difficult. So let’s use an example. Husband has a house that he bought before marriage, and they get married and they live in that house.
(1:30 – 2:16)
Now, remember I said everything you’ve got during the marriage is community property, which includes your wages and your income that you use to pay that mortgage. So now you have what is called commingling, mixing up apples and oranges because you have a separate property that you’re living in and paying the mortgage from your money, which creates math. So when people get divorced and that is a situation, there is a formula to calculate what the wife’s reimbursement claim for the community property used to help husband’s separate property.
(2:16 – 2:25)
She doesn’t have a community interest in the home. She has a reimbursement right. So I’ll give you another example.
(2:27 – 2:35)
Wife has a retirement from before her marriage. She gets married. She continues to contribute to her retirement.
(2:36 – 2:48)
Those contributions are community funds. Now we’ve mixed up things. So there will be a formula that will determine wife’s separate property piece.
(2:48 – 3:09)
And what is the community property piece? Because as you know, when we’re getting divorced, we’re trying to divide our stuff into two parts so that the two parties can move on and go away with what’s theirs. It sounds quite complicated. It’s math, which I love, Michael.
(3:10 – 3:31)
I love it. That’s why I’m having a problem with it. You obviously have to work with accountants and that kind of thing as well, I imagine, right? Not, well, sometimes, but thankfully, and I know this is just doing this a little bit, but unlike a lot of family law attorneys, math is something that I enjoy, that I’m quite good at.
(3:31 – 3:52)
And so I take on those cases that have these math complications because I understand them inherently. Right, right. Well, if people have questions about this complicated issue and they wanna ask you about this, how can they be in touch? They can reach me directly, 619-574-8000.
(3:52 – 4:16)
And you will be put on my calendar for a free 30-minute phone consultation where I can go through some of these intricacies with you. And then if you want, you can reach us online at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com. There’s a form you can fill out, submit it, and we will reach back out to you to set up that free 30-minute phone consultation.