How are you setting yourself up for success at home, in your job, in your business when it comes to your property?
Are you being careful about who and what you do with the property you have an interest in, and the property that you own?
I absolutely love to talk about property. But in full disclosure – my Indigenous perspective always comes through pretty strongly when I talk about property. In fact, it can be really conflicting and twofold in that:
- No one owns anything and we’re all here out of the kindness of our ancestors, and
- We as Indigenous peoples have a right to maintain control, protect, and develop our own cultural heritage, knowledge, expression, and everything coming from that, including how we use the land to keep that culture, heritage, knowledge, and expression alive and thriving.
But, the idea of ownership as an Indigenous person is a different conversation altogether. So, instead, let’s look at modern property, specifically ownership.
In order to understand what ownership actually means, you have to think of two factors:
- HOW to obtain legal ownership. This can be done through a purchase, a gift, inheritance or producing it yourself.
- WHAT can be owned. Based on modern law, everything and anything under the sun can be owned, assuming you owned it properly to begin with.
Here in Louisiana and in other civil law jurisdictions of the world, in order to have full ownership of something, you need to have the following:
- The full and clear right to use it.
- The fruits of it, which can mean literal fruits OR anything that comes from something, like rental property and the rent you get from the lease.
- The right to get rid of it, destroy it, sell it, donate it, etc. You need all three of these things to have full ownership.
The rules may be different wherever you’re located, but even so, it’s still important to see property ownership as multiple pieces that can be broken up into rights.
When it comes to WHAT can be owned, in Louisiana, there’s separate property and community property. What’s the difference?
- Separate property is anything you own on your own, solely on your own. No one else has the right to take it away, sell it, or restrict your right to use it without your approval and permission. Can be personal property, real property, intellectual property, and yes, even BUSINESS property.
- Community property is different from separate property because community property is anything and everything that you acquire during a marriage, and in some states, domestic partnership – debts and assets alike. Both assets and debts.
For example, if you start a business while you’re married, and your spouse is actively involved in the business and not being paid as an employee and clearly not an owner, then they may have some serious rights to the business and to the income from it. It may even be considered a community enterprise.
That’s right, there are some serious rights associated with owning property. That’s why it’s so important to have a Power Team and make sure all your expectations are laid out CLEARLY before you jump into anything.
Extra Credit
As you go about your day, think about the following:
- Think about everything you own and created. Is someone else interfering in it? Have you allowed someone else to use it and never put some barriers or parameters in place around its use?
- Think about everything you might have coming to you later in life. How do you want to protect that for yourself – your current self and your future self?
Next Steps
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