Court Opinion

ID: 9705409
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:05:09.93893+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:10.668678
License: Public Domain

Allen, C.J.,
dissenting. I dissent because the property distribution is based upon assumptions and speculations which may or may not come to pass. While the trial court and this Court believe that the wife has been awarded marital property valued at $220,000 and the husband has been awarded $197,000, the husband did not receive and may never receive $128,000 of that *199award. In order for the husband to receive this sum it must be assumed that the trustee will not invade for the benefit of the mother, that the son will survive his mother and that the son will then exercise his right to invade.
We have previously recognized two methods of distribution for uncertain interests in property during divorce proceedings. When such property can be actuarially valued, it may be distributed immediately through the offset method. Alternatively, the court can retain jurisdiction and distribute the property as it becomes available to one of the parties. See McDermott v. McDermott, 150 Vt. 258, 261, 552 A.2d 786, 788-89 (1988) (discussing the two methods of distribution in the context of a pension plan). The latter approach allows the court to base the property distribution on actual figures rather than assumptions. Id. at 261, 552 A.2d at 789. A third approach is to make an award to a spouse of a noninterest-bearing judgment for a percentage of the trust when it becomes available to the other spouse. See In re Marriage of Bentson, 61 Or. App. 282, 283, 656 P.2d 395, 397 (1983). This avoids the need for retained jurisdiction and preserves the advantages associated with distributions based on actual figures rather than speculation.
Here, the actuary assumed that the principal would stay intact until the death of the husband’s mother and did not take into account the possibility that it might be substantially depleted by invasion to care for the mother’s final years. The trustee had the express power to invade the corpus as was “reasonable and necessary” for the mother’s “comfortable, support, maintenance, benefit and welfare.” I question whether the husband’s interest is even susceptible of actuarial valuation given the broad power of invasion. Davidson v. Davidson, 19 Mass. App. 364, 371, 474 N.E.2d 1137, 1143-44 (1985) (value of remainder interest is uncertain and actuarial calculations are of no avail where trustees could invade “in their uncontrolled discretion”).
While the assumptions upon which the court bases its property division could conceivably occur, it is equally plausible that the husband will receive little or nothing from the trust or that the wife will receive all of the income therefrom during her life. *200A fairer approach would be to divide the benefits from the trust on an “if, as, and when they are received” basis, and to make an equitable assignment of the assets that are in possession and readily susceptible of division.