McDermott v. McDermott

In McDermott v. McDermott, 150 Vt. 258, 261, 552 A.2d 786, 789 (1988), a case involving distribution of pension funds and the application of the coverture fraction, the trial court distributed the entire present value of a pension without taking into account that only a proportion of the total value of the pension was subject to distribution because part of the pension's projected value reflected plaintiff's future earnings rather than earnings during the course of the marriage. The Court reversed and remanded for determination of a coverture fraction and the percentage of the value of the account that was attributable to the marriage. Id. McDermott requires a trial court to provide for equitable distribution of only that portion of a pension that is attributable to the marriage, but does not require the trial court to use a particular cut-off date in calculating the coverture fraction. Id.