Arizona Divorce Lawyer

Arizona, Is It a Community Property State or Not?

As most everyone is aware, Arizona is a community property state. In other words, assets accumulated during the marriage whether in or out of Arizona are community property. In the event of a divorce, that property will be divided equitably by the court if the parties cannot agree. Each party should receive half of the property or value.

A new bill, Senate Bill 1373, if passed would make a significant change to the community property laws in Arizona with regard to military assets. The bill appears to be a concerted effort to eliminate military assets and benefits from community property division.

The specific language of Senate Bill 1373 states that “all property acquired by either husband or wife during the marriage is community property of the husband and wife, except for property that falls under Section 5 (A)(3), which excludes property "acquired as a result of service in the United States Armed Forces, whether through active duty, reserve or national guard service, inside or outside of this state."

What this means for divorcing parties is that, if one of you is in the military and you are divorcing, this bill benefits the member of the military. If you are the spouse of a member in the military this prevents you from obtaining an equitable division of those assets.

This result could be unfair for a person married to a member of the armed services. For instance, if a wife has been married to her husband for ten years, and he is an active member of the military or has been on active duty at any time during the marriage and has accumulated benefits, and later on the parties get divorced, the member of the military, in this case let’s say the husband, can assert that all of his benefits are his and his alone and his wife should not share in any of those benefits or assets.

Sometimes unintended consequences result from poorly drafted legislation. If you have an opinion on this, please contact your appropriate state senators and give your input. If you have any questions about community property law in Arizona or how that property is currently affected by your soon to be ex-spouse, please contact us.