Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Under MD law, any property acquired while you are legally married with marital funds is considered marital property, even though only one spouse's name is on the title. So your soon-to-be-ex would have a claim for part of the equity based upon your initial down payment if you take title before the divorce is final. You need to try and put together a separation agreement which spells out that this type of asset acquisition is not subject to marital distribution as part of the divorce. If it turns out that you are getting the down payment from someone else as a gift, your spouse would not have this claim.