Because Nevada shares physical borders, many transplanted residents, and basic community property law with the states of California and Arizona, the issue of when community property stops accumulating is a frequently misconstrued concept in Nevada. As a tenet of governing Nevada law, the answer here is fundamentally different than in California and Arizona, and it may also be viewed as nowhere near as reasonable. It can also be an important consideration in heavily contested divorce cases, where the path to finality may involve lengthy child custody proceedings, business and asset valuations, and multiple court hearings, with the process lasting a year or more.
California law ends the marital community on “final separation.” Arizona law generally terminates the accrual of community property on the date of filing and service of a petition for divorce. Outside of very narrow statutory exceptions, however, Nevada community property stops accumulating on the entry a Decree of Divorce (which is routinely viewed as meaning the date of the conduct of a divorce trial, or the entry of a formal written Decree, whichever occurrence is first in time). In Nevada, separation does not serve to dissolve the marital community, and does not change the fact that income earned during separation retains its character as community property. See the case of Forrest v. Forrest.
As a practical matter, Nevada‘s rule on the duration of community property accrual generally incentivizes a rapid divorce for the primary wage-earning spouse, and disincentivizes a rapid divorce for a homemaker or a secondary wage-earner. Nevertheless, reforms in the law to bring Nevada more in line with California and Arizona have so far been lacking.