Valuation of separate property of the parties is often a difficult and complicated situation. Contact a Colorado Divorce Mediator to discuss the specifics of your case. Separate property consists of assests each party owned prior to the marriage, inherited during the marriage, or were given as a separate gift. However, the increase in value of such individual property is marital property and must be considered as part of the entire marital estate in determining an equitable division of assets. But, if the value of a piece of individual property decreases during the term of the marriage, no credit is given for the decrease in value against increases in value of other individual property owned by the party. Rather, the property that has decreased in value is disregarded from the entire analysis of increased property value for purposed of calculating the value of the entire marital estate.