That depends on how the property is classified. In North Carolina, there are three categories of property—marital property, separate property, and divisible property. Some assets may be mixed; for example, it is common for a retirement account to be both separate and marital property.
All property acquired after the date of marriage but before the date of separation is presumed to be marital property, no matter whose account it went into, or how the property was treated during the marriage. Marital property is presumed to be split equally between the spouses.
Separate property is anything that was acquired before the marriage or that was inherited or received as a gift during the marriage. Separate property belongs to the spouse who brought it into the marriage, or who inherited it.
The third category, divisible property, includes increases or decreases in the value of marital property after the date of separation but before the date the property is actually divided between the spouses. It also includes property acquired after the date of separation but that was based on efforts during the marriage (for example, a purchase that was negotiated during the marriage but isn’t actually finalized until after the parties have separated). Like marital property, divisible property is presumed to be split equally between the parties.
In some cases, marital and divisible property will be divided unequally. This can be appropriate where one of the spouses has long term health problems or cares for a disabled child, to name just two examples. It is up to the judge to decide whether an unequal distribution of the assets is appropriate in each case.