Equitable distribution is how Florida divides what a married couple owns and what it owes. The word equitable is where most of the confusion starts. It does not mean a judge decides what feels fair, and it does not mean the spouse who earned more keeps more.
Florida law is more structured than that. Under section 61.075 of the Florida Statutes, a court must begin with the premise that the distribution should be equal, and moves away from equal only when there is a justification for an unequal division based on the factors the statute lists. So the starting line in a Tampa divorce is an even split of the marital estate. Almost all of the real work happens before that split: deciding what belongs in the marital estate, and what those things are worth.
Equal is the starting point, not a guaranteed result
The statute sets out the reasons a court may divide marital property unevenly. They include each spouse's contribution to the marriage, including care of the children and services as a homemaker; the economic circumstances of each; the length of the marriage; the interruption of a career or an education; one spouse's contribution to the other's career or education; the desirability of keeping an asset such as a business interest intact and free from interference; and the desirability of keeping the marital home as a residence for a dependent child.
The statute also names the intentional dissipation, waste, depletion, or destruction of marital assets after the petition is filed or within the two years before it is filed. That is the provision that matters when one spouse has been moving money, spending heavily, or transferring property once the marriage started to come apart. The list ends with a catch-all: any other factor necessary to do equity and justice between the parties. Courts use it, but it is a reason to depart from equal, not a license to ignore the premise.
First the estate has to be sorted
Before anything is divided, every asset and every debt is classified as marital or nonmarital. This is the part of property division that decides most cases, and it is rarely clean.
Marital generally means acquired during the marriage, by either spouse individually or jointly, regardless of whose name is on the title. Retirement and pension benefits, profit sharing, deferred compensation and similar plans are marital to the extent they accrued during the marriage, whether or not they are vested. Debts incurred during the marriage are treated the same way, which surprises people who assume a credit card in one name is one person's problem.
Nonmarital generally means what a spouse brought into the marriage, what a spouse received during the marriage by gift, inheritance, bequest or devise from someone other than the other spouse, income from nonmarital assets that was not treated as marital, and anything a valid written agreement between the spouses excluded.
Where the line blurs
Nonmarital property does not always stay nonmarital, and this is the most common surprise in a divorce.
- If a nonmarital asset increased in value because of either spouse's efforts during the marriage, or because marital money was spent on it, that enhancement in value is marital even though the underlying asset is not.
- If marital income paid down the mortgage on a house one spouse owned before the marriage, the statute contains a formula that treats the principal paid down, plus a proportionate share of the property's passive appreciation, as a marital asset.
- Real property the spouses hold as tenants by the entireties is presumed to be marital. Rebutting that presumption takes clear and convincing evidence, not a recollection of what was intended at the time.
- An inheritance deposited into a joint account and spent on household costs can lose its separate character through commingling. Money that stays traceable usually keeps it.
One rule changed recently and is easy to get wrong. Florida amended the statute so that an interspousal gift of an interest in real property must be made in a written instrument satisfying section 689.01, which governs conveyances of real estate. That applies to transfers made on or after July 1, 2024. If a spouse's name was added to or removed from a deed, the date and the paperwork now matter in a way they did not before.
The date that closes the list
Assets and liabilities are identified as marital or nonmarital as of a fixed cutoff: the earliest of the date the spouses entered a valid separation agreement, another date that agreement expressly sets, or the date the petition for dissolution of marriage was filed.
Valuation is a separate question from classification, and it does not have to happen on the same day. The statute lets a judge value different assets as of different dates when the circumstances call for it. A closely held business, a brokerage account and a house may each carry a different valuation date in one case.
Proving it: disclosure and findings
Equitable distribution runs on documents. Rule 12.285 of the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure requires each spouse to provide a financial affidavit and a defined set of records, including tax returns, pay records, bank and investment statements and loan applications. In certain circumstances the spouses may jointly file a verified waiver of filing the affidavits with the court, but the underlying exchange of information is still what a case is built on.
If a contested case reaches a judge without a settlement, the judgment dividing the property has to be supported by factual findings based on competent substantial evidence. The court identifies the nonmarital assets, values the significant marital assets and liabilities, designates who receives what, and explains the reasoning. Careful documentation early tends to shorten that process later.
The statute also allows an interim partial distribution before the case ends, on a sworn motion showing good cause, which the law defines as extraordinary circumstances: preventing a foreclosure or repossession, avoiding the loss of housing, preventing a default on a marital debt or a tax lien, covering a dependent child's expenses, or paying reasonable attorney fees and costs.
What equitable distribution is not
Property division is decided separately from support. Alimony is governed by its own statute, which the Legislature rewrote in 2023, and permanent alimony is no longer among the forms of alimony a Florida court can award. Child support is calculated under a separate guideline. The three interact, because what a person receives in the property division affects their economic circumstances, but they are not one decision.
There is also a practical difference in how final each one is. Support can generally be revisited later if circumstances change substantially. A property division in a final judgment ordinarily cannot. That asymmetry is worth understanding before you agree to a trade.
How this usually plays out in Hillsborough County
Tampa cases are filed in the Family Law Division of the Circuit Court for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, at the George Edgecomb Courthouse, 800 E. Twiggs Street. Most property division here is resolved by agreement rather than decided by a judge.
Part of the reason is mediation. Florida family cases are routinely ordered to mediation before a contested final hearing is set, and property division is usually the bulk of what gets discussed there. The roles are worth understanding going in. The mediator is a neutral who represents neither spouse and decides nothing. Your own attorney is the person advising you on what a proposal is actually worth. You are expected to attend in good faith. You are not required to settle.
What to do now
If you are early in this, the most useful thing you can do is unglamorous. Build a list of everything you own and everything you owe, with balances. Pull the last three years of tax returns, the closing documents on any real estate, and the statements showing what each account held on the date you married. Note anything you inherited or received as a gift, and where that money went.
That record is what decides whether an asset is classified as yours, as marital, or as some of each.
To talk through how these rules apply to your own balance sheet, our office can walk you through the divorce process and what your situation is likely to involve. Rechel & Associates, serving Tampa Bay families since 1992, can be reached at (813) 931-8111.