Graham.Law Blog

In a brand-new case decided last week, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that a child’s funds held in a properly constituted Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) account are not marital assets, and it was error for the trial court to divide the account between the parties on a…

Typically, when spouses own joint property, such as by jointly titling an asset, that creates a presumption at divorce that the property is a marital asset, see, e.g., Finer. A spouse who brings an asset into marriage (i.e., premarital assets) or was gifted property during the marriage can generally preserve…

Yet again, a spouse at divorce who merely asserted a claim for separate property in a divorce lost because he did not actually submit evidence to prove the separate property claim based upon premarital employment. Colorado law provides that upon dissolution of marriage, the court “shall set apart to each…

Dividing a pension and divorce – often a retirement is one of the most valuable assets at divorce, and under Colorado’s marital property laws, a pension is subject to division at divorce. But what happens if there is a miscalculation in the pension at divorce? Normally, retirement account misstatements would…

The Colorado Court of Appeals issued a decision recently concerning commingled assets which reminds us of the power that spouses have in marital agreements (in this case, a “prenup”, or prenuptial agreement) to deviate from the normal statutory property division in a divorce. For a complete discussion of prenuptial agreements…

Back in 2019, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that a marital agreement (prenup or postnup) was required to be in writing and signed by both parties under the Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act, and reversed a trial court decision upholding an oral agreement which purported to set aside…

Back in 2019, we wrote about the Blaine case, where the Colorado Court of Appeals held that one spouse conveying property to the other using an Interspousal Transfer Deed turned that property into the other spouses’ separate property Today, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed the decision, holding that unless one…

So much for joint title killing a separate property claim! The Colorado Court of Appeals has issued a new, and somewhat surprising decision, that separate property funds which a spouse jointly-titled still remained her separate property at divorce. In an unpublished case, Boyd, the Wife’s ex-husband from her first marriage…

Inheritance is Separate Property at Divorce While property acquired during the marriage is presumptively marital, a spouse can overcome that presumption by showing the property was “acquired by gift, bequest, devise, or descent.” (2)(a). In other words, an inheritance received by one spouse is that spouse’s separate property, unless he/she…

Marital Property Includes Separate Property Increase in Value In a Colorado dissolution of marriage, an asset owned by a spouse prior to marriage remains the property of that spouse (per (2)). But that does not increase a separate property increase in value. Only the principal amount brought into the marriage…