Opinion ID: 2570648
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Marital Assets and the Property Division

Text: The couple's primary assets, owned either jointly or individually, consisted of a home in Anchorage, a cabin in Sterling, a cabin in Rainbow Shores, and Dennis's retirement account. The two also, jointly or individually, had various debts, the most sizable of which were two mortgages on the Anchorage home and credit card debt. As part of their petition for dissolution of marriage, Dennis and Rebecca jointly submitted a proposed allocation of property. The superior court accepted this allocation and incorporated it into its findings of fact and conclusions of law and its decree of divorce. Dennis and Rebecca reached this property division after negotiations via telephone and e-mail. Rebecca explains that the negotiations mainly concerned two items consisting of who would be responsible for the $100,000.00 second mortgage on the Anchorage home and how the credit card debt would be divided. Both parties retained attorneys and indicated on their proposed property division form that they had received legal advice. However, the two negotiated and reached the division largely, if not entirely, on their own. In an October 20, 2004 e-mail to Dennis, Rebecca stated, I REALLY want to work this out without attorneysit would give each of us, immediately, most of our $3500 [retainer] back. Rebecca claims that she contacted her attorney after she and Dennis reached a tentative property division, but that she declined to send her attorney a copy of the draft agreement. [1] Dennis owned the home in Anchorage before the marriage and retained title solely in his name during the marriage. [2] The two valued the property at $395,000. It was subject to two mortgages: a first mortgage of $160,000 and a second mortgage of $100,000. Rebecca received the house subject to the first mortgage. According to the property division form, the two split the second mortgage, but provided that it would be paid off from the sale of the house. [3] The two jointly owned the cabin in Sterling and valued it at $400,000. The second mortgage on the Anchorage home was largely spent on the Sterling cabin. Dennis received the cabin. Rebecca alleged that it was her understanding that the cabin would always be available for their children from prior marriages and that the children would inherit the property. Rebecca's understanding was not included in the written property division. Finally, the two jointly owned a cabin in Rainbow Shores. They valued it at $86,000 and evenly allocated its ownership upon divorce. They agreed to sell the property and equally divide the proceeds. During the negotiations, neither party obtained an estimate of the present value of Dennis's retirement account. However, they both knew, or should have known, the size of the annual retirement salary that Dennis was receiving and that he would be receiving these checks for the rest of his life. [4] Rebecca asserted that the marital portion of the account has an estimated present value of $730,000. [5] Dennis received the entire retirement account in the settlement. [6] Rebecca and Dennis also divided their credit card debt. While Rebecca claimed that she had been paying some of his credit cards, the property allocation agreement does not include such a requirement. As Dennis explained the agreement, many of the credit cards were in his name (due, allegedly, to Rebecca's troubled credit history) but Rebecca did not take over any of the credit card debt Dennis himself accrued. By Rebecca's calculations, Dennis received property and assets with a net value in excess of $1 million (even excluding the retirement account's estimated present value, in excess of $300,000), while Rebecca received property and assets with a net value of slightly over $100,000.