Legal Question in Family Law in California

Reply: What About Bank Accounts?

The best way to protect yourself is to take all of the money and place it into an account that requires both signatures to make a withdrawal. If she does empty the community account, she is responsible to account to you for what she did with the proceeds. Depending on what she does with it, she may or may not be required to reimburse you for your community property interest.

Good luck to you!

Brian Levy, Esq.

www.calattorney.net

Re: What About Bank Accounts?

first off, i certainly hope you and your wife are able to work things out and there is no dissolution based on your feelings for your wife..you seem like a good man who wants his marriage to work, and thats awesome. now, to answer your legal question, do all of the joint bank accounts require both of you to sign off anytime a withdrawal can be made, or what is the nature of your joint bank accounts? i am assuming however from your concerns that either of you can withdraw money at anytime or for any reason. if this is the case, your wife may be able to use the money for "the good of the community", meaning she has mutual rights to control the marital assets if she is doing so in a productive way for the betterment of your marital assets so to speak. however, she cannot commit waste on these assets and she cannot spend money from these accounts in a way that is "detrimental" to the marital assets, or you would be able to enjoin the transactions and/or have standing for reimbursement up to your 50% interest in these community property bank accounts. if you can email more detailed information regarding these joint bank accounts as well as what you think your wife might do with the funds "behind your back" now that she is trying to leave the marriage perhaps, i will be able to further assist and/or represent you legally in this matter. once again, i hope you two can truly work things out though. thank you for your question and good luck!