DID YOU KNOW BY ATTORNEY F.M. ZAVALA

Future or Contingent Rights

[A] In General

Time of acquisition may be at issue if a party acquires only a “contingent” or future interest in a right to property during marriage. The issue might arise, for example, in the context of dividing rights to contingent fees, work in progress in a professional practice, royalties, or qui tam actions, as well as in the employment contract (see [B], below) and similar contexts.

In general, the fact that an interest is contingent, nonvested, or nonmatured, or involves intangible property, will not preclude the court from characterizing it as community property in an action for legal separation or dissolution, if the right to the interest was acquired during marriage and before separation.