I'm thinking about divorce. When I got married, my wife basically had no assets but she did work. Since marrying, we now have a child and she has stopped working. I own a home outright (which we live in today) as well as personal and IRA assets worth about $1M today (which were worth about $600k) when I got married. I never contributed or withdrew any money from my personal or IRA brokerage accounts during the marriage. Do I get to keep the home and brokerage accounts as separate property?
I am in California
Answer
If you never made deposits to the brokerage accounts, they should be separate property. If the home was paid off before marriage, and you made no improvements (not maintenance, but improvements) during the marriage, it would probably be separate property too. If you had a mortgage and/or equity line on it when you married, that was paid off after marriage, then it will require a careful analysis of the financial facts to determine what interest the community might have in the house. You don't ask, but you also need to expect to pay spousal and child support. Depending on the totality of your family and personal finances, those assets are not likely to be, but could be, a factor in the support calculations.
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