California is a Community Property state that recognizes both community and separate property assets. Assets that are inherited by a married person are separate property (i.e., owned and controlled by the inheriting spouse alone) unless it is commingled (e.g., money deposited into a joint account) or re-titled (e.g., real property) to include the married person’s spouse. If so, the other spouse can acquire a community property or separate property interest in the inherited separate property asset. Such inherited assets may be a difficult issue when a married couple does estate planning.

Most married people do a single joint living trust into which they transfer their real property and non retirement investment accounts, especially the assets that they acquired together from marital ear

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