ABA Family Legal Guide

Family Law

Money Matters During Marriage

Ownership of Property

What is the community property system?

Eight states--Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington--plus Puerto Rico have adopted a different concept of the relationship of husband and wife, which is rooted in Spanish law. Though these states may differ a good deal on the specifics of their law, in general they consider any property acquired during a marriage, except by gift or inheritance, to be community property. This is true even if one spouse supplied all the income. Each spouse owns half of the community property. Each may transfer his or her interest without the other's signature. But there's no right of survivorship; when one spouse dies, half of the couple's property--including half of the house--goes through probate.

A ninth state, Wisconsin , has certain community property features in its law. A tenth state, Alaska , changed its law in 1998 to allow married seniors to select community property as an alternative form of ownership of their property. A couple may voluntarily decide to enter into a written community property agreement or community property trust, but, if they don't choose to do that, their property will not be held as community property.