Short answer. Yes. In a universal partnership of profits you keep ownership of what you already owned. Article 1780 says property each partner possessed when the partnership was formed shall continue to pertain exclusively to each, only the usufruct passing to the partnership. The firm gets the use and fruits, not your title.
What the law says
Movable or immovable property which each of the partners may possess at the time of the celebration of the contract shall continue to pertain exclusively to each, only the usufruct passing to the partnership.
Civil Code, Article 1780 — Universal Partnership of Profits. Read the full provision →
What you contribute is the use, not the thing
Article 1780 draws a clean line for this kind of partnership. It provides that movable or immovable property which each of the partners may possess at the time of the celebration of the contract shall continue to pertain exclusively to each, only the usufruct passing to the partnership. Usufruct is the right to use a thing and take its fruits without owning it. So your land, your building, your equipment remain yours; what the partnership receives is the benefit of them during its life. When the partnership ends, the thing itself is still yours to take back, because your ownership never left you.
What the partnership actually shares
The same article says a universal partnership of profits comprises all that the partners may acquire by their industry or work during the existence of the partnership. That is the pool the partners share: the earnings and gains produced by their efforts while the partnership runs, plus the fruits of the property whose use they contributed. It does not swallow the capital assets themselves. This is what distinguishes a partnership of profits from a universal partnership of all present property, where the things owned at the start are actually transferred into the common fund and become jointly owned rather than merely used.
Where the line can blur
Keeping title does not mean the arrangement is without limits. Only the usufruct passes, so during the partnership you cannot treat property you committed as if the firm had no claim on its use and fruits; those belong to the common venture. Property you acquire later by your work falls into the shared profits, while property you acquire by pure lucre, such as an inheritance or donation received during the partnership, is generally not swept in unless the agreement says so. What each partner owned at the outset stays personal; disputes usually turn on classifying later acquisitions.
Why the distinction matters in practice
The practical value of Article 1780 is protection of your patrimony. Creditors of the partnership and your co-partners share in profits and the use of contributed assets, but your ownership of the underlying property is not on the table merely because you joined. On dissolution you recover the things themselves, and only the accumulated profits are divided. Because so much depends on which type of universal partnership you formed, and on how a given asset is classified, the partnership agreement should say plainly what is contributed as usufruct and what, if anything, is transferred outright. Ambiguity there is where partners later fall out.