§5.11 Employer Disability Benefits

Disability payments that an employee receives because of his or her status as a disabled person are the separate property of the spouse who receives them. [Marriage of Flockhart (1981) 119 CA3d 240, 243.]

However, if the primary purpose of disability payments shifts to retirement support when retirement age is reached, the payments then become community property to the extent they are based on employment while married. [Marriage of Samuels (1979) 96 CA3d 122, 128.]