Once you are married, you either have marital or nonmarital property. Marital property will be equitably apportioned between the parties by the court. According to South Carolina law,
“…the term “marital property” as used in this article means all real and personal property which has been acquired by the parties during the marriage and which is owned as of the date of filing or commencement of marital litigation as provided in Section 20-3-620 regardless of how legal title is held, except the following, which constitute nonmarital property:
(1) property acquired by either party by inheritance, devise, bequest, or gift from a party other than the spouse;
(2) property acquired by either party before the marriage and property acquired after the happening of the earliest of:
(a) entry of a pendente lite order in a divorce or separate maintenance action;
(b) formal signing of a written property or marital settlement agreement; or
(c) entry of a permanent order of separate maintenance and support or of a permanent order approving a property or marital settlement agreement between the parties;
(3) property acquired by either party in exchange for property described in items (1) and (2) of this section;
(4) property excluded by written contract of the parties. “Written contract” includes any antenuptial agreement of the parties which must be considered presumptively fair and equitable so long as it was voluntarily executed with both parties separately represented by counsel and pursuant to the full financial disclosure to each other that is mandated by the rules of the family court as to income, debts, and assets;
(5) any increase in value in nonmarital property, except to the extent that the increase resulted directly or indirectly from efforts of the other spouse during marriage.
Interspousal gifts of property, including gifts of property from one spouse to the other made indirectly by way of a third party, are marital property which is subject to division.”
The court does not have the jurisdiction or authority to apportion nonmarital property. S.C. Ann. Code § 20-3-630
