WILL THE CHILDREN'S BANK ACCOUNTS BE CONSIDERED COMMUNITY PROPERTY IN A DIVORCE?

I frequently receive questions from people regarding their family law issues. The following is a question which the inquirer agreed may be publicly revealed, and my answer to the question:

QUESTION: Will the bank accounts of the children be considered community property in a California divorce? During a divorce and separating finances, will the joint bank accounts with just me and the children be split as community property? Or will they remain untouched? My main concern is that the savings that I, alone, created for the kids have to be split with the respondent party? Thank you.

ANSWER: If the childrens' bank accounts were set up prior to separation as Uniform Gifts to Minors' Act accounts on behalf of the children, with you as Trustee, those accounts would qualify as the childrens' accounts as opposed to community property, especially if your spouse agreed to those accounts being set up and funded.

However, if you set up those accounts as joint accounts in which you and the children were joint account-holders, that could be problematic for a number of reasons including, but not limited to: 1) you would have the unfettered ability to withdraw funds from the accounts for your own use, so having the childrens' names as joint account-holders could be argued by your spouse to be illusory; and 2) if you funded those accounts without your spouse's knowledge or consent, your spouse could claim that you did so in breach of your fiduciary duty to the marital community, especially if their funding was done in anticipation of separation.

You should discuss the accounts with your Family Law Attorney, and you should disclose those accounts in your Declarations of Disclosure - in which you could enter a "Ch" instead of "P" or "R" as to whose accounts they are (Ch for children, P for Petitioner, R for Respondent), instead of leaving the designation blank (which would imply that they are community accounts).

If at all possible, you should try to negotiate a resolution with your spouse to convert those accounts to Uniform Gifts to Minors Act accounts of the children (if they were not already set up as that type of account), with no credit or reimbursement to your wife or the community for the monies used to fund those accounts.

This blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, a Certified Family Law Specalist, owner of Warner Center Law Offices in Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley, an effective and aggressive Family Law and Divorce Attorney serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years, offering a free confidential consultation regarding your divorce or family law issues, at 818/880-8990, responding to questions posed to him about Divorce and Family Law.