In re Marriage of Smith, 2024 COA 95

In the dissolution of marriage between Sarah Bland Smith (wife) and James F. Butterworth (husband), the husband appealed the trial court’s distribution of marital assets.
Central to the appeal was whether the wife's interest in an irrevocable family trust created by her stepmother constituted property or an economic circumstance relevant to asset division.
The trust listed wife, her siblings, and her father as eligible beneficiaries, but all distributions were at the sole discretion of the father (the trustee and primary beneficiary), who also held a power of appointment to control disposition after his death.
The district court excluded the wife’s trust interest from the marital estate, finding it both discretionary and revocable due to her father's power of appointment.
The court also decided husband’s claims of separate property in real estate were without merit due to evidence of gifting to the marriage or commingling.
The division of a $49.5 million marital estate was approximately equal; husband’s claims that wife dissipated marital assets (sale of Apple stock) were rejected.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether wife’s interest in the family trust is property or an economic circumstance	Trust interest is a property right or economic circumstance that should be divided	Interest is discretionary and revocable; not property nor economic circumstance	Discretionary and revocable; not property or economic circumstance
Whether husband had separate property interests in certain assets (2042 & 2032 Alpine, NY Condo)	Assets bought with proceeds of premarital patents are his separate property	Properties were gifted to the marriage or commingled, losing separate character	District court did not err; assets were marital property
Whether the approximately equal division was an abuse of discretion	Husband’s financial contributions outweighed wife’s and deserved greater share	Court correctly considered both spouses’ financial and noneconomic contributions	Equal division affirmed
Whether wife’s sale of Apple stock constituted dissipation/economic fault	Wife improperly disposed of marital assets, warranting a reallocation	Sale was to protect marital assets and facilitate husband’s house purchase	No economic fault; court need not reallocate

In re Marriage of Cardona, 316 P.3d 626 (Colo. 2014) (Defines property interest in dissolution context)
In re Marriage of Balanson, 25 P.3d 28 (Colo. 2001) (Gifting separate property to marriage, property interest definitions)
In re Marriage of Jones, 812 P.2d 1152 (Colo. 1991) (Discretionary trust interests as expectancies, not property)
In re Marriage of Rosenblum, 602 P.2d 892 (Colo. App. 1979) (Discretionary trust distributions do not give enforceable property interest)
In re Marriage of Gorman, 36 P.3d 211 (Colo. App. 2001) (Legislative change to treatment of revocable trust interests)
In re Marriage of Dale, 87 P.3d 219 (Colo. App. 2003) (Trust interest classification, effect of survivorship conditions)
In re Marriage of Powell, 220 P.3d 952 (Colo. App. 2009) (Court discretion in equitable marital property division)
In re Marriage of Riley-Cunningham, 7 P.3d 992 (Colo. App. 1999) (When economic fault may be considered in asset division)