Marriage of Davis

*849Opinion

CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.

In a marital dissolution proceeding, a court determines the division of property between the spouses by first characterizing the parties’ property as community property or separate property. (In re Marriage of Valli (2014) 58 Cal.4th 1396, 1399 [171 Cal.Rptr.3d 454, 324 P.3d 274].) Family Code section 760 provides that all property acquired by the spouses during the marriage is community property “[ejxcept as otherwise provided by statute.” One such statute is Family Code section 771, subdivision (a) (section 771(a)), which provides that “[t]he earnings and…