Contract conveyances normally happen when spouses enter into what are termed midnuptial or postnuptial agreements, either implied or written. These agreements are generally governed by contract law.

If the conveyance is not a contract, then the courts consider it a gift and it is generally considered in the common-law definition of a gift. That is, there must be intent on the part of the donor, delivery and acceptance by the recipient. Here the burden of proof is on the person who claims that the intent is present, which in most cases is the recipient.

This accounts for its acquisition and improvement.

Gifts between spouses are subject to distribution in divorce, and they can become problematic depending upon the community property or equitable distribution jurisdictions, and this can affect the way gifts between spouses are treated.

In general, the question of interspousal gifts turns on whether a gift is a gift to the marriage or a gift to a during the marriage are subject to distribution because they come to be seen a marital property.

When couples marry (particularly when they marry for the first time), very often separate property becomes marital property. If Bill owns a home before he marries Bonnie and adds her name to the deed after they married by selling her the house for a dollar, he made what is termed a "presumptive gift" to the marriage, turning the homestead into marital property.

And when Bill gifts that house to Bonnie making it their joint marital property, that contribution to the marriage ("gift to the marriage," as it is called) is sufficient to warrant an unequal division of the asset in a divorce. When a court spouse.

Suppose Bonnie added $100 a week from her salary to a $10,000 claim against a percentage of the earnings of that money during their marriage.)

But sometimes it gets harder to determine who owns the gift. If John gave Ginny a five-caret diamond as a present during happier times of the marriage, he may argue that the ring is an investment, and therefore, marital property, while Ginny contends that the gift is her separate property. If John and Ginny cannot agree, a court may have to decide for them, and judges have discretion in how they decide.

In nine jurisdictions that include separate property in the marital discretion of the court.

Community property and equitable distribution states view gifts in different ways. In allegations of dissipation.

Some jurisdictions require that intent be proven affirmatively; that is, that the intent to make a gift to the marriage must be proven when it is conveyed into joint title.

See Inter Vivos.

See also Commingling; Separate Property; Kitchen Sink States; Community Property; Equitable Distribution.