Community Property Explanation

Posted: 10 July, 2020

Nevada is a community property state. The rules around community property are important to understand because they will play a huge part in how the court divides your assets and debts during a divorce.

Community property consists of assets that you and your spouse acquired after you married. The same goes for debts. During a divorce, the court splits community property 50/50 with your spouse. Anything you earned before the marriage is separate property.

For example, any income, vehicles, homes, or investments that you acquired after you married are all community property. A notable exception is anything inherited by one spouse. Inheritance stays separate.

During your divorce, your divorce attorneys and the courts will look at all of your assets. Then they’ll carefully sort through what you accrued before the marriage and during the marriage.

Be aware of commingled assets. Mixing separate assets with community assets can turn the whole thing into a community asset. A house you purchased before the marriage but paid the mortgage with money you earned after could become community property if an attorney or accountant can’t figure out how to separate the separate property from community property.

There are eight other states like Nevada that use community property to divide assets and debts. That’s something to keep in mind when you go to file a divorce in Nevada.


The idea of giving the other spouse 50% is well known. In Las Vegas you only need to split 50% of community property and not separate property. Attorney Stacy Rocheleau explains what is community property.