She's entitled to half his retirement even as deposited AFTER SHE WANTS A DIVORCE??? I mean .... a divorce in the offing seems like a pretty big change to the usual and customary, whichever way you slice it. . I missed the word "petitioner". Although that would apply to a man divorcing an adulterous wife, too, wouldn't it?
Yes on both counts. Until the Community is dissolved -- often, but not exclusively, on the Date of Separation indicated on the divorce filing by Petitioner -- Community Property is Community Property, and it's irrelevant really who wanted what. And even then no changes are usually permitted for the period the petition runs. And that's a pain for the Petitioner -- just ask WAW, who still wigs out at the merest mention of money.
But it's also there to protect Respondent. Imagine you're one of these Gordon Gekko Wall Street Wizards and you're working the Big Deal of a Lifetime that will net you a Zillion Bucks. And Mrs. GGWSW is so Last Year's Model. So you shift all your money away from areas where she'd have claims in the event of a divorce, and then file for divorce, and then the next day -- Whoopee! What a Surprise! I just made a Zillion Bucks! Gosh what a coincidence!
Devil's in the details... Which is why I so often find myself saying to WAW during this or that of her Batsh*t-Crazy-a-Thons (which seem to have gone away lately, thanks no doubt to the Good Luvvin' from Signore il Secondo), "Falls into the category of Things That Would Have Been Good To Research Before....".
