Is Life Insurance Marital Property? 
California is a community property state . Whenever the owner of a life insurance policy wants to change the policy the spouse must approve the transaction . We do have provisions for separate property but that would be difficult to implement in the case of life insurance . However , once the provisions of the policy are set it takes both parties to make a change and at the time of death the proceeds will be disbursed according to the policy . This is most critical when a person divorces , remarries and forgets to change the beneficiary of the life insurance . 