Here is some information for you from the LA Bar Assoc:
http://www.lsba.org/Public_Resources/community_property.html
Consumer Brochure Series
Community Property: What is mine? What is yours? What is ours?
Separate Property
A spouse's separate property, by definition, belongs exclusively to the spouse. All property acquired prior to marriage is, of course, separate. After marriage, a spouse's separate property also includes:
* Property acquired after marriage if there is a pre-nuptial separate property agreement.
* Property acquired during marriage after a post-nuptial separate property agreement is judicially approved.
* Property acquired with the spouse's separate property, or with the spouse's separate and community property when the value of the community property is inconsequential in comparison to the value of the separate property.
* Property donated to or inherited by one spouse.
* Damages from personal injury, workman's compensation, etc., awarded to one spouse only.
* Property acquired by a spouse from a voluntary partition of community by spouses during the marriage.
* Damages awarded to a spouse in an action against the spouse for breach of contract, fraud or bad faith in management of communityproperty or the spouse's separate property.
* All property acquired by a spouse after divorce or death of his/her spouse, including property from a community property settlement or community property partition, is separate property.
Community Property
An individual owns an undivided one-half interest in the community property with a spouse; neither spouse can sell, mortgage or lease his/her undivided interest in the community property until it is partitioned. Community property comprises the following:
* Property acquired during the marriage (unless spouses are separate in property) through the effort, skill or industry of either spouse.
* Property acquired with community property or with community and separate property when the value of the separate property is inconsequential to the value of the community property.
* Property donated to the spouses jointly.
* Fruits and revenues of community property, and fruits and revenues from separate property unless specifically reserved as separate property.
* Damages or loss or injury to a community property asset.
* All property acquired during the marriage not classified as separate property.
* All property in the possession of a spouse during the marriage is presumed to be community property, although either spouse may prove it to be separate property.
Marriage Contracts
Marriage contracts allow for the renunciation or modification of the community property rules as follows:
* A marriage contract can maintain the spouses completely separate in property, or provide for separate and community property during the marriage. For example, the salary of one spouse can be classified as his/her separate property and the salary of the other spouse classified to be community property, or the spouses can provide for fixed contributions to the expenses of the marriage or apportion community property by shares.
* A marriage contract executed prior to the marriage does not require judicial approval.
* A marriage contract executed after the marriage (subject to exception below) requires judicial approval.
* During the first year after moving into and acquiring a domicile in Louisiana, spouses may enter into a marriage contract without judicial approval.
* Limitations on marriage contracts include fraud of creditors, renunciation/alienation of marital portion, and right of one spouse to obligate the community.
Community vs. Separate Property
How to change community property into separate property, and vice-versa:
* Donation by a spouse to the other spouse of his/her interest in a community asset converts the entire ownership of the asset into the separate property of the recipient spouse.
* Donation by a spouse of his/her separate property to the community transfers that property into community property.
* Voluntary partition of community property during marriage converts the property partitioned from community to separate property of the recipient spouse.
Equal Management of Community Property
Louisiana's principal of equal management of community property is as follows:
* Each spouse has the right of equal management of community property (subject to certain exceptions) and a spouse acting alone may manage, control and dispose of community property.
* Both spouses must concur in the sale, mortgage or lease of community real estate, furniture or furnishings in the family home, all or substantially all of the assets of the community, and motor vehicles titled in the names of both spouses.
* The donation of community property to a third person requires the concurrence of both spouses. One spouse may, however, make a usual or customary gift of a value commensurate with economic positions of the spouses at the time of the donation.
* A spouse has exclusive right to manage, sell, mortgage or lease community movables registered or titled in that spouse's name alone, such as shares of stock and motor vehicles.
* A spouse may, in writing, renounce the right to participate in the management of community property (in whole or part), and/or the spouse's right to concur in the sale, mortgage or lease of community real estate.
Debts During Marriage
Concerning debts of the spouses incurred during the marriage, who is liable for what?
* If spouses are separate in property, the spouse incurring the debt is liable, and the non-incurring spouse is only liable for the benefit received from the debt.
* With a community property regime, a debt incurred by a spouse is either a community debt or a separate debt. If incurred for the common interest of the spouses or for the interest of the other spouse, it is a community debt.
* A separate debt of a spouse can be satisfied from that spouse's separate property and the community property.
* A community debt can be satisfied from the community property and from the separate property of the spouse who incurred the same. If both spouses received a benefit from the debt, it can be collected from the separate property of both spouses as well as the community property.
Myths and Misunderstandings
A few myths and misunderstandings about separate and community property are corrected as follows:
* How property is "titled," i.e. husband or wife, does not affect classification as separate or community property.
* Marriage alone does not automatically convert the existing separate property of the spouses into community property.
* Separate property brought into the marriage that loses its identity by commingling, replacement, etc., becomes community property.
* Upon termination of marriage, separate property funds utilized for the benefit of the community are reimbursed to that spouse in the amount of 50 percent, not 100 percent.
* Upon termination of the marriage, assets are valued at the time of the community property settlement or community property partition, not at the time of divorce.
This brochure, prepared by the Louisiana State Bar Association, is issued to inform and provide general information, not to advise. If you have a specific legal problem you should not try to apply or interpret the law without the aid of a trained expert who knows the facts because the facts may change the application of the law.
For free legal information, call TEL-LAW, a collection of tape-recorded messages written by lawyers to assist you in understanding the legal system. With TEL-LAW, help is just a phone call away, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
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