@Heartbroken -- if a petition for divorce has been filed, then the Community ceased to be in force on the Date of Separation (DOS). So as of the DOS you can separate your assets, assuming some agreement on continued maintenance of jointly held assets (i.e., mortgage, property insurance, car payments, etc.). If a petition hasn't been filed, then depending on your state it is still the Community and, at least as a first approximation, is 50/50. So let's say she makes $1 and you make $5. That's a Community of $6. Which means $3 each. Which works out nicely, metaphorically speaking, because -- attention all would-be WAS's -- divorce proceeds by the Law of Thirds: One-third for Uncle Sam, one-third for you, one-third for Left-Behind.
@Kett -- quite apart from bookkeeping trickery, there's a common-sense reason for @Thinker not making changes, and it gets to the point he made when he noted just up-thread that his DB efforts are continuing apace.
Let's say, at the decisive, final moment, when the @Thinkers are standing in front of a judge, in family court, with the @Thinker children bravely trying to restrain their tears and sniffles, while the lawyers present their cases to the judge, explaining for all to hear how the differences are irreconcilable, how the Family @Thinker has ceased to exist, how the Parents @Thinker no longer hold themselves out to the general public as a cohesive family unit, how and how and how the Marriage @Thinker is No More -- at that moment, at the decisive, final, clock-ticking-towards-Armageddon-moment, that Mrs. @Thinker, when asked by Hizzoner to confirm her POV that dissolution of the marriage, destruction of the family, the ending of the Saga @Thinker, that this is indeed the only possible course-of-action; that Mrs. @Thinker, when trying to not look at the Children @Thinker, while trying not to flush, trying to breathe, trying trying trying to pretend she were anywhere but here, anticipating the howl of agony that will surely explode unbidden from the throats of the Children @Thinker, what if she were to say.... "Ummm, no"?
Tinkering with the money now -- speaking of getting lawyers rich -- will create an infinity of requirements for reconstitution of the Community, changes of wills/trusts (back, they having presumably been changed already), and etc. then. And what about the potential ill-will at the worst possible time, at the early delicate fragile piecing time, when Mrs. @Thinker looks at Hisself and says, "You did what? You couldn't wait? What, did you think I'd steal it or something?"
No no no no no no no no noooooo, you don't want to be making even "rational" economic decisions until the Opportune Moment. And that Moment hasn't come yet, methinks.
