Opinion ID: 2572748
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The superior court erred in including the separate property of the parties and their children in the marital estate.

Text: Annette claims that the superior court incorrectly included the separate property of the parties and their children in the marital estate. The superior court found that such separate property existed and that it was identified by the initials of the property owners in the exhibits presented at trial. All of this separate property was awarded to Annette and credited against her in the property division, mistakenly raising the value of the property awarded to her in that division. David concedes that the superior court included the separate property in the marital estate, but argues that the children's property should be characterized as Annette's because she has custody of the children. This argument is without merit because David has not alleged that Annette violated her duties as trustee of the children's separate property by misusing or misappropriating the property. [31] The custodial parent should not have the children's separate property credited against his or her share of the marital estate because that parent is under a duty to use that property for the children's benefit or allow the children to use it for their own benefit. Therefore, we remand this issue to the superior court to reduce its valuation of the portion of the marital estate awarded to Annette by the value of the parties' and their children's separate property. David also claims that the superior court did not err in failing to credit Annette for the value of his separate property because she has not returned many of the items from the 11th Avenue house and that the few items returned were damaged. The superior court did not make any findings on whether Annette had returned David's separate property. We remand the question of whether Annette complied with the property division by returning David's separate property.