How many years do you have to be legally married in the state of Florida before you have to pay half?

Answer 1

The best answer is "it doesn't work that way."

Florida is an "equitable distribution" state, which means that if the parties are unable or unwilling to reach a settlement themselves, a court will step in and make an "equitable" (not "equal", but rather "fair") distribution of the assets.

They can consider a lot of factors in coming up with the division, including who contributed how much to the combined assets of the household, what the parties' economic circumstances are, any interruption in business or educational opportunites, contributions by one spouse to the business or educational opportunities of the other, whether either of the parties intentionally depleted or wasted marital assets either after the filing of the divorce petition or within the two years prior to it, a number of other factors, or (finally) the duration of the marriage.

A wife with a minor child she's retaining custody of, who left school to work so that her husband could continue in school and get a degree, whose husband suddenly decided to go on an expensive vacation the month before filing divorce papers, is likely to get a much larger portion of the assets than a wife with no children who has a higher paying job than her husband, who's only been married two months, and who was herself the one to go on the expensive vacation.

But the bottom line is that Florida has no "you've been married two years, so now you have to give your ex half of everything" law... the law instead recognizes that each divorce is different and gives the courts considerable latitude in determining what a fair division of the assets would be depending on the unique circumstances of the case.