Florida Divorce Law...

Florida Law - What is "Marital Property?"

In general, all property acquired during the marriage is marital property.

• Property and debts acquired during the marriage, by either or both spouses.
• Increase in value of non-marital assets by the efforts of either party, or investment of marital cash.
• Gifts from one spouse to the other during the marriage.
• Pension funds and benefits accrued during the marriage (vested and non-vested).
• All real estate owned as "as husband and wife." (The legal jargon for this is "as tenants by the entireties," and it is possible to prove that such real estate is non-marital property, by facts that show that really only one party owns the land.)

Examples of marital property include the following:

• A home if purchased with earnings of either or both parties during the marriage.
• A pension plan, to the extent accrued during the marriage.
• The value of bank accounts, mutual funds, etc., at least to the extent the funds deposited were earned by either party during the marriage.

Cases:

Knecht (1993) 629 So2d 883 (alimony should be permanent, not temporary, where husband's law firm income was approximately $240,000, wife was 56 years old, and her income from real estate sales was $11,000).

Ray (1993) 624 So2d 1146 (loan from wife's inheritance to Husband, used for family farm's expenses, was a marital debt; thus husband was responsible to repay only part of it; this was the case even though farm was husband's separate property).

Villalava (1993) 620 So2d 198 (husband brought home before marriage; however, after a deed converting the home to marital property (so-called "tenants by the entireties") the court treated it as marital property).

Smith (1992) 597 So2d 370 (husband can have a special equity interest in wife's marital property home only if he can prove that a gift was not intended when the deed was re-issued to the married couple as "tenants by the entireties.")

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