Minnesota law, for title research

Is Minnesota a community property state? No: marital property, homestead signatures, and the surviving spouse's homestead

Every rule below is quoted from the Minnesota Statutes or another official source, linked and checked on the date shown. General information, not legal advice.

How does Minnesota classify a married couple's property?

As marital or nonmarital, for division when a marriage ends in court. IRS Publication 555 lists nine community property states, and Minnesota is not among them. Marital property is real or personal property either spouse acquires during the marriage and before the valuation date, and it is presumed marital whether title is held individually or as joint tenants, tenants in common, tenants by the entirety or community property.

Each spouse has a common ownership in marital property that vests no later than entry of a dissolution or annulment decree, and the court fixes its extent. Section 518.003 gives these meanings for chapters 518 and 518A, so they are divorce definitions rather than a rule for every purpose.

Can a creditor of one spouse reach the other spouse's share?

Two rules speak to this. Section 519.05(a) says a spouse is not liable to a creditor for any debts of the other spouse, though a court in a chapter 518 proceeding may apportion such debt between them. Separately, when a title interest in real property is held individually by only one spouse, section 518.003 says the nontitled spouse's interest is not subject to claims of creditors or judgment or tax liens until a decree awards an interest to that spouse. That rule protects the nontitled spouse's interest. How a lien against the titled spouse affects the land is for a Minnesota attorney.

What is nonmarital property in Minnesota?

Nonmarital property: a gift, bequest, devise or inheritance from a third party to one spouse, property acquired before the marriage or after the valuation date, property excluded by a valid antenuptial contract, and property acquired in exchange for any of those or as their increase in value. The presumption that property is marital is overcome by a showing that it is nonmarital. Nonmarital property is not always beyond reach: to prevent unfair hardship, section 518.58, subdivision 2 lets the court apportion up to one-half of the property excluded under clauses (a) to (d), with findings.

Is Minnesota a 50/50 state in a divorce?

The statute calls for a just and equitable division, not a fixed split. The court divides marital property without regard to marital misconduct after considering all relevant factors, including the length of the marriage and each spouse's contribution, including as homemaker, and it conclusively presumes each spouse made a substantial contribution while they lived together.

Assets are valued as of the initially scheduled prehearing settlement conference unless the parties agree or the court makes specific findings that another date is fair and equitable, and the court may adjust for a substantial change in an asset's value before final distribution. While a divorce is pending or contemplated, each spouse owes the other a fiduciary duty for profit or loss from using marital assets without consent.

Why does a Minnesota homestead deed need both spouses?

Section 507.02 says so. If the owner is married, no conveyance of the homestead is valid without the signatures of both spouses, apart from a purchase money mortgage, a conveyance between spouses under section 500.19, subdivision 4, or a severance of a joint tenancy under subdivision 5. A spouse may sign through a duly appointed attorney-in-fact.

Other land owned by one spouse may be conveyed by that spouse's separate deed, subject to the other spouse's rights in it, and the other spouse may relinquish those rights by a separate conveyance.

What does a surviving spouse take at death?

Without a will, the spouse takes the entire intestate estate when no descendant survives, or when all descendants are shared and the spouse has none from another relationship; otherwise the first 225,000 dollars plus one-half of the balance. With or without a will, the surviving spouse of a decedent who dies domiciled in the state may elect a share of the augmented estate that grows with the length of the marriage, reaching 50 percent at 15 years. The petition is due within nine months after the death or six months after probate of the will, whichever expires later, under section 524.2-211(a). Section 524.2-202(b) adds a supplemental amount when the listed sums fall short of 75,000 dollars, and homestead rights are in addition to these amounts.

The homestead has its own rule. It descends free of any disposition the spouse did not consent to in writing: to the spouse if no descendant survives, otherwise to the spouse for life with the remainder to the descendants. Except as section 524.2-301 provides, the spouse is deemed to consent unless the spouse files a petition asserting those homestead rights. Under section 524.2-211(f), the filing is due within nine months after the death, or for a testamentary disposition, within six months after probate if that expires later, and the court may extend the time as that paragraph allows.

What about community property from another state?

Minnesota is not on the IRS list, but chapter 519A, enacted in 2013, applies at death to property a married person acquired as, or that became and remained, community property under another jurisdiction's law. All or the proportionate part of Minnesota land acquired with the rents, issues, income or proceeds of that property, in exchange for it, or traceable to it, is covered.

Half of covered property is the survivor's and cannot be left by the decedent's will or pass by succession. The decedent's half stays outside the right to elect against the will and outside the net estate used for the elective share. Coverage turns on rebuttable presumptions. Acquisition during marriage while domiciled where community property could then be acquired is presumed in. Survivorship title taken while domiciled where it could not is presumed out.

Two details stand out in chapter 519A. It reaches title held by a trustee of an inter vivos trust created by the decedent, or by the decedent and the spouse, and it sets deadlines for the written demand that triggers any duty to look for covered property: four months after first publication of notice to creditors for estate property and, for trust property, 60 days after death if no written notice is given or 20 days after written notice. A purchaser for value or secured lender gets protection in two directions under section 519A.06: it takes free of the rights of the decedent's side when the surviving spouse has apparent title, and free of the surviving spouse's rights when the decedent's side has it. For land, apparent title means record title. Section 519A.07 leaves the rights of creditors unaffected.

What a title search checks on a married Minnesota owner

A title check before buying traces the chain of title with images, reports the marital status and homestead recitals in each deed and mortgage and who signed, and looks for a dissolution decree and, after a death, a homestead petition or written consent of record. Whether land was a homestead at a signing is for a Minnesota attorney. On a Minnesota transfer on death deed, it reports any spouse joinder it finds.

The Minnesota marital property rules on this page, with their sources

Sources: IRS Publication 555, Community Property; Minnesota Statutes 518.003; Minnesota Statutes 518.58; Minnesota Statutes 507.02; Minnesota Statutes 524.2-102; Minnesota Statutes 524.2-202; Minnesota Statutes 524.2-402; Minnesota Statutes 507.071; Statutes 519A.11; Statutes 519A.01; Statutes 519A.02; Statutes 519A.03; Statutes 519A.04; Statutes 519A.05; Statutes 519A.06; Statutes 519A.08; Minnesota Statutes 519.05; Minnesota Statutes 524.2-211; Minnesota Statutes 519A.07. Each row links the section it summarizes.

Questions people ask

More on how Minnesota property law shapes a title search: title research in Minnesota.