Family Law & Domestic Relations Flashcards

A wife deposits a $50,000 inheritance into a joint account used for household expenses and both spouses' paychecks. Most courts will likely treat the funds as:

Answer: Marital property through commingling or transmutation, if untraceable

When separate funds are commingled with marital funds so they cannot be traced, they are generally transmuted into marital property.

A husband's premarital business increases in value during marriage because of his full-time efforts. In most equitable distribution states, the increase is:

Answer: Marital property to the extent attributable to active marital efforts

Active appreciation caused by marital labor or funds is generally marital, while passive appreciation from market forces remains separate.

In most U.S. jurisdictions, a professional degree earned by one spouse during marriage is treated as:

Answer: Not divisible property, though the supporting spouse may receive reimbursement or alimony

Most states (unlike New York's former O'Brien rule) decline to treat degrees as property but allow reimbursement alimony or consider contributions in support.

To divide an ERISA-governed private pension plan in a divorce, the non-employee spouse generally needs:

Answer: A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO)

ERISA's anti-alienation rule is excepted for QDROs, which direct the plan administrator to pay an alternate payee.

Under Mansell v. Mansell and Howell v. Howell, a state court dividing military retirement pay may NOT:

Answer: Treat retirement pay waived to receive VA disability benefits as divisible property

Federal law bars states from dividing the portion of retirement pay waived to receive VA disability benefits, or ordering indemnification for that waiver.

Under the analytic approach, the pain-and-suffering portion of a spouse's personal injury award received during marriage is usually:

Answer: Separate property of the injured spouse

The analytic approach treats compensation for pain, suffering, and post-divorce lost earnings as separate, while marital-period lost wages and medical expenses paid from marital funds are marital.

In a community property state, property acquired during marriage is presumed community property unless:

Answer: It was acquired by gift, bequest, or inheritance to one spouse

Property acquired during marriage by gift, devise, bequest, or descent is the recipient spouse's separate property even in community property states.