Community Property

While many people know that Louisiana operates under laws of community property, most people don’t understand the many implications of these laws. It’s important to know how community property principles affect you, your spouse, and your property in order to make informed and educated decisions.

Under community property, each spouse owns a one-half interest in all community property. Community property includes several types of property that may or may not be acquired during your marriage. First, all property acquired during the marriage through the effort, skill, or work of either spouse is community property. This broad category includes wages or salaries and anything purchased with wages or salary earned by either spouse. Anything you buy with the money you or your spouse makes at your job is community property, as is the money you made at the job. Another category of items which are community property is all property acquired with community things. Items which are donated or willed to both spouses jointly are community property, so anything given to Mr. and Mrs. Couple is considered community. Any income derived from community property is also community property. This includes, for example, rent paid on a house that is community property.

The law does not merely provide for community property; it also defines what is considered separate property. Separate property is the exclusive property of one spouse, and the other spouse cannot claim ownership of the property because of the marriage. The most important category of separate property is any property acquired before the marriage. This law makes sure that neither spouse loses anything that they brought into the marriage. Another category of separate property is property that is acquired with separate property. Essentially, anything that one spouse gets in exchange for something that was separate property is itself separate property. For example, if Husband owns vacant land before he marries Wife, that land is Husband’s separate property. If he later trades that land for a different piece of land, the new land is also Husband’s separate property. Another important category of separate property is inherited or donated property. All property willed or donated to one spouse, and only one spouse, is the separate property of that spouse. Therefore, if Wife’s grandmother dies and leaves Wife $10,000, that $10,000 is Wife’s separate property.

Understanding how the law classifies ownership of your property is important for everyone. However, the laws about community property can be complex and difficult to understand. While this article hopefully provided a basic understanding of community property law, if you are concerned about your marital property, your attorney can answer any specific questions you may have.
 

Article © Colvin Law Firm 2009.

Image: "Rings," originally uploaded to Flickr by stephend9.