General Strategy

Question 1

Three Possible Scenarios

Answer 1

(1) Husband and wife start off married in California. The only issue here is characterizing the assets and liabilities.
(2) Husband and wife start off in a non-community property state and then move to California. The issue here will be quasi-community property.
(3) (Rare) Where husband and wife aren’t married but one of them in good faith thinks that they are and it is therefore a putative marriage.

Question 2

Starting Point Strategy

Answer 2

Isolate each asset or debt and discuss them in the order the call of the question asks. First ask who acquired it, how it was acquired, and when it was acquired.