Separate Property

The name for property acquired before marriage, or during the marriage as a gift or inheritance. Any property bought during marriage with separate property, and kept as separate property, is not community property. When a person dies, separate property will pass on to others according to how title to the property is held, like joint tenancy or payable on death to a beneficiary, or according to any other legal documents, like a will, or a trust, or according to the laws of inheritance.

Source: Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County

Separate property is everything that a husband or wife or registered domestic partners OWNS SEPARATELY. In most cases that includes:

(1) anything that you owned before you got married or registered as domestic partners;

(2) anything you earned or received after your separation; and

(3) anything that either of you received, as a gift or by inheritance, at any time.

Source: California Courts.