"She and Him" singer and actress Zooey Deschanel recently filed to divorce her musician husband Ben Gibbard. The two describe the split as "amicable" and this split is not expected to feature the drama that is common in celebrity divorces.

Deschanel recently attached an income and expense declaration to her court filings which indicates that she carries no debt and has a sizable amount of money stored in stocks and checking accounts. Many Las Vegas spouses who are equally as responsible with their finances are shocked to learn that their prudence may not be rewarded during the property division process. Community property rules apply to Nevada residents. This means that even couples who keep separate finances have to split their assets during a divorce.

The assets and debts of each spouse are put into the same pot and divided equitably. There are very few exceptions to the property division process so even businesses that have no value other than what is provided by the spouse are subject to division.

This means that if both Deschanel and Gibbard hand holding companies for their bands, each of these companies would likely be considered for division by a court. This situation more commonly arises when one spouse is a physician and has a practice which gets considered during the property division process. The physician's practice has little value outside of what the physician-spouse puts into it, but a court will still consider it.

It is important to note that marital misconduct does not count during the property division process but financial misconduct does. So, a court would consider it irrelevant if Deschanel could prove that Gibbard cheated on her. The same Nevada court would be highly interested however, if Deschanel could prove that Gibbard committed some sort of financial waste, such as blowing his money at a casino or supporting a drug habit, for example.

Fortunately neither of the stars appears to have such colorful issues and the property division process will likely be short and amicable.

Source: The Washington Post, "Zooey Deschanel files for divorce from Ben Gibbard," Sarah Anne Hughes, Jan. 5, 2012