You may want to read this article:
Snippet: "Furthermore, according to Texas attorney Glen Ayers, if you live in a community property state, you'd better hope you didn't receive community property in the divorce. "That divorce judgment does not bind the credit card company. It's going to chase you," he says. In a community property state, the rules are different during life and at death. "In community states such as Texas, any community property that passes to my wife as well as any specific bequest to my children would be liable on my death," says Ayers. If a wife, for example, has no contractual obligation to the community property, her separate property can't be touched, Ayers adds. However, community property can be used to pay off debts. Community debt laws are complex and vary even among community property states, so talk to a lawyer in your state about your situation."
“However, community property can be used to pay off debts.”
This is true - after a husband’s death, his part of the community property can be used to pay his debt. If you have a joint bank account, his part can be used to pay his debt. Any property the wife had before the marriage, is not community property and the same is true with the husband. Community property is only that which occurs after the marriage between the two people.
As far as divorce, one shouldn’t have community property after a divorce. It would have been split up in the financial part of the divorce - he got his half and the wife got her half and each individually owns his/her half from that point on. The lawyer is saying that when he says, “her separate property can’t be touched”.
A divorce and a death usually has an attorney to keep it all straight.