Separate property is any property acquired by a party prior to the marriage. In this video, divorce attorney Meredith Weiner discusses commingling of separate property. Any property that moves from a separate property account to a joint account is subject to community property division in a divorce.
“Why is a commingling of separate property?
Generally, separate property is any property that was acquired by either party before the marriage or with a few slight exceptions. Some of those exceptions include inheritance, personal injury settlements, or any monies that you had before you got married.
When parties get married, they often take separate property and put it into a joint account. The use of the money from the joint account does what`s called transmutates the property into community property, and therefore, anything that moves from a separate property account to a community property account is subject to community property division and divorce.”