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518.003 DEFINITIONS.
    Subdivision 1. Scope. For the purposes of this chapter and chapter 518A, the following terms
have the meanings provided in this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
    Subd. 2.[Renumbered subd 9]
    Subd. 3. Custody. Unless otherwise agreed by the parties:
(a) "Legal custody" means the right to determine the child's upbringing, including education,
health care, and religious training.
(b) "Joint legal custody" means that both parents have equal rights and responsibilities,
including the right to participate in major decisions determining the child's upbringing, including
education, health care, and religious training.
(c) "Physical custody and residence" means the routine daily care and control and the
residence of the child.
(d) "Joint physical custody" means that the routine daily care and control and the residence
of the child is structured between the parties.
(e) Wherever used in this chapter, the term "custodial parent" or "custodian" means the
person who has the physical custody of the child at any particular time.
(f) "Custody determination" means a court decision and court orders and instructions
providing for the custody of a child, including parenting time, but does not include a decision
relating to child support or any other monetary obligation of any person.
(g) "Custody proceeding" includes proceedings in which a custody determination is one of
several issues, such as an action for dissolution, divorce, or separation, and includes proceedings
involving children who are in need of protection or services, domestic abuse, and paternity.
    Subd. 3a. Maintenance. "Maintenance" means an award made in a dissolution or legal
separation proceeding of payments from the future income or earnings of one spouse for the
support and maintenance of the other.
    Subd. 3b. Marital property; exceptions. "Marital property" means property, real or
personal, including vested public or private pension plan benefits or rights, acquired by the parties,
or either of them, to a dissolution, legal separation, or annulment proceeding at any time during
the existence of the marriage relation between them, or at any time during which the parties were
living together as husband and wife under a purported marriage relationship which is annulled in
an annulment proceeding, but prior to the date of valuation under section 518.58, subdivision
1. All property acquired by either spouse subsequent to the marriage and before the valuation
date is presumed to be marital property regardless of whether title is held individually or by the
spouses in a form of co-ownership such as joint tenancy, tenancy in common, tenancy by the
entirety, or community property. Each spouse shall be deemed to have a common ownership in
marital property that vests not later than the time of the entry of the decree in a proceeding for
dissolution or annulment. The extent of the vested interest shall be determined and made final
by the court pursuant to section 518.58. If a title interest in real property is held individually by
only one spouse, the interest in the real property of the nontitled spouse is not subject to claims
of creditors or judgment or tax liens until the time of entry of the decree awarding an interest
to the nontitled spouse. The presumption of marital property is overcome by a showing that
the property is nonmarital property.
    "Nonmarital property" means property real or personal, acquired by either spouse before,
during, or after the existence of their marriage, which
    (a) is acquired as a gift, bequest, devise or inheritance made by a third party to one but not
to the other spouse;
    (b) is acquired before the marriage;
    (c) is acquired in exchange for or is the increase in value of property which is described in
clauses (a), (b), (d), and (e);
    (d) is acquired by a spouse after the valuation date; or
    (e) is excluded by a valid antenuptial contract.
    Subd. 4. Mediation. "Mediation" means a process in which an impartial third party facilitates
an agreement between two or more parties in a proceeding.
    Subd. 5. Parenting time. "Parenting time" means the time a parent spends with a child
regardless of the custodial designation regarding the child.
    Subd. 6. Pension plan benefits or rights. "Pension plan benefits or rights" means a benefit
or right from a public or private pension plan accrued to the end of the month in which marital
assets are valued, as determined under the terms of the laws or other plan document provisions
governing the plan, including section 356.30.
    Subd. 7. Private pension plan. "Private pension plan" means a plan, fund, or program
maintained by an employer or employee organization that provides retirement income to
employees or results in a deferral of income by employees for a period extending to the
termination of covered employment or beyond.
    Subd. 8. Public pension plan. "Public pension plan" means a pension plan or fund specified
in section 356.20, subdivision 2, or 356.30, subdivision 3, the deferred compensation plan
specified in section 352.96, or any retirement or pension plan or fund, including a supplemental
retirement plan or fund, established, maintained, or supported by a governmental subdivision or
public body whose revenues are derived from taxation, fees, assessments, or from other public
sources.
    Subd. 9. Residence. "Residence" means the place where a party has established a permanent
home from which the party has no present intention of moving.
History: 1951 c 551 s 1; 1969 c 1028 s 2,3; 1973 c 725 s 74; 1974 c 107 s 18; 1978 c 772 s
48; 1979 c 259 s 2,23,34; 1981 c 349 s 2; 1981 c 360 art 2 s 45; 1982 c 464 s 1; 1983 c 144 s 1;
1986 c 444; 1987 c 157 s 14-16; 1988 c 590 s 1; 1988 c 668 s 15,16; 1989 c 282 art 2 s 189; 1990
c 568 art 2 s 68,69; 1990 c 574 s 6,7; 1992 c 463 s 29; 1993 c 340 s 31; 1994 c 488 s 8; 1995 c
202 art 1 s 25; 1997 c 203 art 6 s 40,41; 1997 c 245 art 3 s 9; 1998 c 382 art 1 s 3-5; 1999 c 107
s 66; 1999 c 196 art 1 s 5; 2000 c 343 s 4; 2000 c 444 art 1 s 1; art 2 s 15; 2005 c 116 s 1-3;
2005 c 164 s 5,29,31; 1Sp2005 c 7 s 26,28; 2006 c 280 s 21,43

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes