Opinion ID: 1892593
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: children's educational trust

Text: Constance held three certificates of deposit, each jointly with an individual child: $2,000 with Carrie; $2,600 with Jason; and $3,000 with Lisa. Gerald argued that these were marital property because they had been purchased with money earned by Constance during the marriage and because they were held in her name. Constance argued that she did not consider them her property nor exercise control over them. Indeed, another certificate, which she held jointly with Jason and which she agreed was her money, was set aside to her in the property distribution. The trial court decreed that Constance hold the three certificates in trust as the children's college fund. We recently held that a parent's support obligation may extend beyond a child's eighteenth birthday. Freyer v. Freyer, 427 N.W.2d 348 (N.D.1988). In Davis v. Davis, 268 N.W.2d 769, 777-778 (N.D.1978), overruled on other grounds, Nelson v. Trinity Medical Center, 419 N.W.2d 886 (N.D. 1988), we upheld a trial court's order requiring a non-custodial father to pay $10,000 per child into a trust for the children's college educations. Not all parents are able to afford to plan ahead for their children's college educations. Where they have done so, courts should foster it, not frustrate it. Therefore, we conclude that it was not clearly erroneous for the trial court to set aside these certificates as the children's college fund.