Property a spouse owned before the marriage, or received by gift or inheritance, can remain separate in Florida, but only when it was kept that way. Once separate funds are mixed into a joint account or used to buy a shared asset, they may lose that protected status through commingling. Tracing is the process of following the money back to its origin to prove what should stay out of the marital pot.
Tracing gets difficult when accounts have been blended over many years, which is common in longer marriages with substantial assets. A high asset divorce lawyer in Orlando works with financial professionals to reconstruct that history when the stakes justify the effort.
