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CourtListener opinion 10598423

Citation: domestic relations order · Date unknown · US

Extracted case name
ERNEST J. NEDDER v. LAUREN E. NEDDER
Extracted reporter citation
domestic relations order
Docket / number
pending
QDRO relevance 5/5Retirement relevance 5/5Family-law relevance 5/5gold label pending
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Machine-draft headnote

Machine-draft public headnote: CourtListener opinion 10598423 is included in the LexyCorpus QDRO sample set as a public CourtListener opinion with relevance to pension / defined benefit issues. The current annotation is conservative: it identifies source provenance, relevance signals, and evidence quotes for attorney/agent retrieval. It is not a Willie-approved legal headnote yet.

Retrieval annotation

Draft retrieval summary: this opinion has QDRO relevance score 5/5, retirement-division score 5/5, and family-law score 5/5. Use the quoted text and full opinion below before relying on the case.

Category: pension / defined benefit issues

Evidence quotes

pension

ng the assignment of prop- erty and the responsibility for debts when entering an order dissolving a marriage. 2. The defendant could not prevail on her claim that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to assign a value to the plaintiff's quasi-pension account prior to dividing the parties' property: this court presumed that the parties' property interest in the account was considered by the trial court when it made its equitable division of property; moreover, although the court did not state which valuation method it used, it was not required to do so, and, because the defendant failed to file a mo

401(k)

olely for the children's medical expenses,'' (2) the bro- kerage account was ‘‘to be used solely for the children's postsecondary educational expenses,'' and (3) the draw account was ‘‘to be used solely for tax payments in 2022.'' The court ordered that a 401k account belonging to the plaintiff was to be equally divided between the parties, and permitted the plaintiff to retain the IRA and retirement brokerage accounts he had owned prior to the marriage. The court also awarded to the plaintiff an ‘‘RSM Capital Account'' and the PVA account. The court ordered that the defendant was to receive $5034 in weekl

domestic relations order

unt. The plaintiff testified 3 During the trial, the plaintiff testified that he was fifty-two years old. 0, 0 CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL Page 11 0 Conn. App. 1 ,0 13 Nedder v. Nedder that, contrary to the defendant's proposal, ‘‘the firm could not do a domestic relations order'' by making payments to her from the PVA account because pay- ments may only be made to those ‘‘in the capacity as owners or partners in the firm,'' and could not be made to the defendant because doing so ‘‘would bring along . . . regulatory issues around [Securities and Exchange Commission] independence, around conflicts, around . . . anything and a

valuation/division

parties and various other witnesses, includ- ing, inter alia, financial experts for both parties. Both Page 2 CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL 0, 0 4 ,0 0 Conn. App. 1 Nedder v. Nedder parties filed proposed orders that contained their respective proposals for property division, child sup- port, and alimony. In his proposed orders, the plaintiff requested, inter alia, that he be awarded three accounts—the ‘‘Fidelity HSA #0811'' (health savings account), the ‘‘Ameriprise brokerage #1133'' (brokerage account), and the ‘‘RSM US LLP Draw account'' (draw account)—with the understanding that they would be used for the limited pu

Source and provenance

Source type
courtlistener_qdro_opinion_full_text
Permissions posture
public
Generated status
machine draft public v0
Review status
gold label pending
Jurisdiction metadata
US
Deterministic extraction
reporter: domestic relations order
Generated at
May 14, 2026

Related public corpus pages

Deterministic links based on shared title/citation terms and QDRO / retirement / family-law retrieval scores.

Clean opinion text

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 Page 0 CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL 0, 0

 2 ,0 0 Conn. App. 1
 Nedder v. Nedder

 ERNEST J. NEDDER v. LAUREN E. NEDDER
 (AC 45654)
 Elgo, Cradle and Westbrook, Js.

 Syllabus

 The defendant appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court
 dissolving her marriage to the plaintiff and entering certain financial
 orders. Held:
 1. The defendant could not prevail on her claim that the trial court did not
 have the authority to order the plaintiff to use specific assets to pay
 certain expenses and debt; it was legally and logically correct for the
 court to equitably divide the parties' property and to order the three
 financial accounts at issue to be used for their originally intended and
 historical purposes, as the court derived its authority to enter those
 orders from the statute (§ 46b-81 (a)) governing the assignment of prop-
 erty and the responsibility for debts when entering an order dissolving
 a marriage.
 2. The defendant could not prevail on her claim that the trial court abused
 its discretion in failing to assign a value to the plaintiff's quasi-pension
 account prior to dividing the parties' property: this court presumed that
 the parties' property interest in the account was considered by the trial
 court when it made its equitable division of property; moreover, although
 the court did not state which valuation method it used, it was not
 required to do so, and, because the defendant failed to file a motion for
 articulation to clarify any potential ambiguity in how the court valued
 the parties' property, there was no evidence in the record supporting
 the defendant's claim.
 3. The defendant could not prevail on her claim that the trial court abused
 its discretion in fashioning its alimony orders:
 a. The defendant's claim that the trial court based its alimony orders on
 the plaintiff's gross income without considering his net income failed;
 the plaintiff's net income was easily ascertainable, the court had exhibits
 in evidence showing the plaintiff's net earnings for each of the four years
 prior to the dissolution hearing, the court's memorandum of decision
 mentioned net income when determining the amount of child support,
 and the court stated that it was adopting the plaintiff's proposal as to
 the amount of alimony to award, which was calculated as a percentage
 of the plaintiff's net income averaged over the last four years.
 b. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in the amount of alimony
 it ordered; the record revealed that the court properly considered the
 criteria in the statute (§ 46b-82 (a)) for determining what amount of
 alimony to award, and, as it was within the court's discretion to place
 various degrees of importance on each criterion according to the factual
 circumstances of the case, this court could not conclude, on the basis
 0, 0 CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL Page 1

 0 Conn. App. 1 ,0 3
 Nedder v. Nedder
 of the facts, evidence and findings in the record, that the trial court
 ordered an insufficient alimony award.
 Argued November 9, 2023—officially released July 23, 2024

 Procedural History

 Action for the dissolution of a marriage, and for other
 relief, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial dis-
 trict of Stamford-Norwalk, where the defendant filed a
 cross complaint; thereafter, the matter was tried to the
 court, Moukawsher, J.; judgment dissolving the mar-
 riage and granting certain other relief, from which the
 defendant appealed to this court. Affirmed.
 Tara C. Dugo, with whom was Melissa A. Bohl, for
 the appellant (defendant).
 Alexander Copp, with whom was Rachel Pencu, for
 the appellee (plaintiff).
 Opinion

 ELGO, J. In this appeal from a marital dissolution
 judgment, the defendant, Lauren E. Nedder, claims that
 the trial court erred in (1) ordering that the plaintiff,
 Ernest J. Nedder, use specific assets to pay certain
 expenses and debt, (2) failing to assign a value to a
 quasi-pension account prior to dividing the parties'
 property, and (3) fashioning its alimony orders. We
 affirm the judgment of the trial court.
 The following facts and procedural history are rele-
 vant to this appeal. The parties were married on June
 18, 2005, and have five children together. On November
 19, 2020, the plaintiff brought an action for dissolution
 of marriage, stating that the marriage had broken down
 irretrievably with no hope for reconciliation, to which
 the defendant agreed. A trial was held over the course
 of four days in June, 2022. The court heard testimony
 from both parties and various other witnesses, includ-
 ing, inter alia, financial experts for both parties. Both
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 4 ,0 0 Conn. App. 1
 Nedder v. Nedder

 parties filed proposed orders that contained their
 respective proposals for property division, child sup-
 port, and alimony.
 In his proposed orders, the plaintiff requested, inter
 alia, that he be awarded three accounts—the ‘‘Fidelity
 HSA #0811'' (health savings account), the ‘‘Ameriprise
 brokerage #1133'' (brokerage account), and the ‘‘RSM
 US LLP Draw account'' (draw account)—with the
 understanding that they would be used for the limited
 purpose of funding the children's medical expenses, the
 children's postmajority educational expenses, and tax
 payments made in 2022, respectively. At trial, the court
 questioned the plaintiff about these accounts. Follow-
 ing a colloquy with the plaintiff's counsel, the court
 indicated that it understood the plaintiff's intention to
 ‘‘distinguish [those accounts] as not being necessarily
 entirely for his benefit''; at the same time, the court
 recognized that, to effectuate the proposed use of those
 accounts, it ‘‘still [has] to allocate [them] to him.'' The
 defendant at that time did not object or raise any issue
 with the plaintiff's proposal. The court also heard exten-
 sive testimony regarding the plaintiff's quasi-pension
 account (PVA account) from the plaintiff and from the
 parties' respective financial experts.
 On June 28, 2022, the court rendered a judgment of
 dissolution ending the parties' seventeen year marriage.
 The court agreed with the parties' custody and parent-
 ing agreement and incorporated it as a court order,
 such that the parties would share joint legal custody
 of their five minor children, who then ranged in age
 from three years old to sixteen years old. The court
 entered orders dividing the marital estate, which pro-
 vided, inter alia, that the defendant would retain the
 marital home and receive a total ‘‘property payment''
 of $75,000 payable in twelve monthly installments. The
 plaintiff received the parties' vacation property located
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 0 Conn. App. 1 ,0 5
 Nedder v. Nedder

 in New Jersey. The court divided ownership of the par-
 ties' bank accounts, and ordered that the plaintiff was
 to retain the following accounts with specific limita-
 tions: (1) the health savings account was ‘‘to be used
 solely for the children's medical expenses,'' (2) the bro-
 kerage account was ‘‘to be used solely for the children's
 postsecondary educational expenses,'' and (3) the draw
 account was ‘‘to be used solely for tax payments in
 2022.'' The court ordered that a 401k account belonging
 to the plaintiff was to be equally divided between the
 parties, and permitted the plaintiff to retain the IRA
 and retirement brokerage accounts he had owned prior
 to the marriage. The court also awarded to the plaintiff
 an ‘‘RSM Capital Account'' and the PVA account. The
 court ordered that the defendant was to receive $5034
 in weekly child support, and a monthly alimony pay-
 ment of $5000. The alimony was to be paid for eight
 years. This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set
 forth as necessary.
 I
 The defendant first claims that the court erred when
 it ordered the plaintiff to use specific assets to pay a
 specific debt or liability.1 The defendant does not dis-
 1
 In his brief, the plaintiff argues that this court lacks subject matter
 jurisdiction to adjudicate this claim due to the defendant's lack of
 aggrievement. Because aggrievement is a basic requirement of standing,
 and standing implicates subject matter jurisdiction, we briefly address this
 threshold issue.
 It is axiomatic that ‘‘only an aggrieved party may appeal.'' Newman v.
 Newman, 235 Conn. 82, 94, 663 A.2d 980 (1995). ‘‘Standing is established
 by showing that the party claiming it is authorized by statute to bring an
 action, in other words, statutorily aggrieved, or is classically aggrieved. . . .
 ‘‘The fundamental test for determining [classical] aggrievement encom-
 passes a well-settled twofold determination: [F]irst, the party claiming
 aggrievement must successfully demonstrate a specific, personal and legal
 interest in [the challenged action] . . . . Second, the party claiming
 aggrievement must successfully establish that this specific personal and
 legal interest has been specially and injuriously affected by the [challenged
 action]. . . . Aggrievement is established if there is a possibility, as distin-
 guished from a certainty, that some legally protected interest . . . has been
 adversely affected.'' (Emphasis added; footnote omitted; internal quotation
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 6 ,0 0 Conn. App. 1
 Nedder v. Nedder

 pute that the court had the authority to award the health
 savings account, the brokerage account, or the draw
 account to the plaintiff, nor that it had the authority to
 require him to pay for the children's medical expenses,
 postsecondary educational expenses, or to make tax
 payments. Rather, the defendant asserts that the court
 did not have the authority to order the plaintiff to use
 these specific accounts to pay for the named liabilities
 and committed reversible error in doing so.2 We dis-
 agree.
 marks omitted.) Handsome, Inc. v. Planning & Zoning Commission, 317
 Conn. 515, 525–26, 119 A.3d 541 (2015).
 The defendant meets the first prong of classical aggrievement because
 she has a specific, personal, and legal interest in the equitable division of
 the marital property. The three accounts at issue in the defendant's first claim
 constitute marital property. The second prong of classical aggrievement is
 a relatively low threshold, as the defendant need only show a possibility
 of being adversely affected by the court awarding these three accounts to
 the plaintiff and directing that they be used for prescribed, limited purposes.
 The defendant claims her legal interest in these accounts is adversely
 affected because any ‘‘additional funds'' that might remain in the accounts
 upon satisfying the stated obligations or liabilities ‘‘cannot be utilized by
 either party pursuant to the court's limiting order. This harms both parties,
 as it leaves assets undivided.'' The defendant may still claim an interest in
 any funds remaining in these accounts even though they were awarded to
 the plaintiff. This is because, upon a careful review of the record, it is
 evident that a possibility exists that the court did not take the funds into
 account when equitably dividing the parties' assets. On the first day of the
 trial, the plaintiff's counsel agreed that the funds in those three accounts
 ‘‘shouldn't be considered part of the total balance between the parties in
 terms of money,'' ‘‘because it's our claim that they'll be set aside for'' the
 specific proposed purposes. The court acknowledged that the plaintiff was
 asking the court ‘‘to think about these [accounts] differently,'' and advised
 counsel to ‘‘save it for closing argument or some other time, but . . . don't
 forget [to say that] if you're just adding up who gets what number, you
 shouldn't be treating this as equal weight to that.'' Although the record is
 devoid of any indication of whether the court removed the value of these
 accounts in the equitable division of assets, the possibility that any potential
 remainder would be undivided between the parties is sufficient to meet the
 minimal threshold requirement of standing. See Handsome, Inc. v. Plan-
 ning & Zoning Commission, supra, 317 Conn. 525 (‘‘ ‘[s]tanding requires
 no more than a colorable claim of injury' '').
 2
 In the concluding paragraphs of the defendant's discussion of her first
 claim in her principal appellate brief, she raises two ancillary arguments—
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 0 Conn. App. 1 ,0 7
 Nedder v. Nedder

 When a party ‘‘challenges the legal authority of the
 court to issue [an] order, [the] claim raises a question
 of law that is subject to . . . plenary review.'' Rosato
 v. Rosato, 77 Conn. App. 9, 17, 822 A.2d 974 (2003).
 ‘‘[T]he court's authority to transfer property appurte-
 nant to a dissolution proceeding requires an interpreta-
 tion of the relevant statutes. Statutory construction, in
 turn, presents a question of law over which our review
 is plenary.'' Smith v. Smith, 249 Conn. 265, 272, 752
 A.2d 1023 (1999).
 The parties agree that the court derives its authority
 to order that the plaintiff retain the disputed accounts
 from General Statutes § 46b-81 (a), which provides in
 relevant part: ‘‘At the time of entering a decree annulling
 or dissolving a marriage . . . the Superior Court may
 that ‘‘the practical effect of such orders makes them unworkable'' and that
 ‘‘the trial court's orders leave assets undivided and liabilities unpaid.'' For
 several reasons, we decline to review these ancillary contentions. First, those
 contentions are inadequately briefed because they are ‘‘without substantive
 discussion or citation of authorities . . . .'' (Internal quotation marks omit-
 ted.) C. B. v. S. B., 211 Conn. App. 628, 630, 273 A.3d 271 (2022). The
 defendant also did not provide any analysis indicating how these contentions
 related to the issue raised on appeal, which is whether the court lacked
 the authority to enter the orders in question. Finally, although a potential
 remainder in the three accounts constituted the possibility of an undivided
 interest sufficient to establish standing; see footnote 1 of this opinion; it
 was incumbent upon the defendant to file a motion for articulation in accor-
 dance with Practice Book § 66-5 to clarify whether the court did, in fact,
 value the accounts in its equitable division of the parties' property. ‘‘It is a
 well established principle of appellate procedure that the appellant has the
 duty of providing this court with a record adequate to afford review. . . .
 Where the factual or legal basis of the trial court's ruling is unclear, the
 appellant should seek articulation pursuant to Practice Book § [66-5]. . . .
 Accordingly, [w]hen the decision of the trial court does not make the factual
 predicates of its findings clear, we will, in the absence of a motion for
 articulation, assume that the trial court acted properly.'' (Internal quotation
 marks omitted.) Blum v. Blum, 109 Conn. App. 316, 331, 951 A.2d 587, cert.
 denied, 289 Conn. 929, 958 A.2d 157 (2008). Here, in the absence of any
 evidence to the contrary and because the defendant failed to file a motion
 for articulation to clarify the court's order, we assume the court intended
 that the plaintiff keep any funds remaining in these accounts after the named
 liabilities have been satisfied.
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 8 ,0 0 Conn. App. 1
 Nedder v. Nedder

 assign to either spouse all or any part of the estate of
 the other spouse. . . .'' The defendant concedes that
 § 46b-81 authorizes the court to order that a party be
 responsible for the payment of debts and liabilities. See
 Carroll v. Carroll, 55 Conn. App. 18, 27, 737 A.2d 963
 (1999) (‘‘[§] 46b-81 authorizes one party to assume the
 joint liabilities of the parties'').
 The defendant nonetheless relies on Zilkha v. Zilkha,
 159 Conn. App. 167, 123 A.3d 439 (2015), to support
 her argument that the court acted ‘‘well beyond [its]
 statutory authority'' when ‘‘requiring the [plaintiff] to
 utilize specific assets to pay said debts, liabilities and
 expenses . . . .'' The plaintiff counters by arguing that
 Zilkha is inapposite to the present case. We agree with
 the plaintiff.
 In her brief, the defendant posits that, in Zilkha, this
 court held that ‘‘the trial court lacks the authority to
 order that fees be paid from a specific asset, regardless
 if said asset is owned solely by the party that is directed
 to make the payments.'' However, the defendant fails
 to consider that the reason ‘‘the court lacked authority
 to distribute the escrow funds [was] because the judg-
 ment of dissolution had not been opened.'' Zilkha v.
 Zilkha, supra, 159 Conn. App. 172.
 In Zilkha, the trial court had rendered a judgment of
 dissolution after dividing the property of the parties in
 accordance with § 46b-81 (a). Id., 169. Three years later,
 the plaintiff filed a motion to open and set aside the
 dissolution judgment after the defendant received a
 vast sum of money from a claim that allegedly was
 fraudulently undisclosed during the pendency of the
 dissolution action. Id. The court granted a motion to
 order part of the defendant's money from the claim to
 be ‘‘held in escrow pending the outcome of the plaintiff's
 postjudgment motion to open,'' but because the plaintiff
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 0 Conn. App. 1 ,0 9
 Nedder v. Nedder

 took no action to conduct discovery or gather informa-
 tion regarding the alleged fraud, no decision was made
 regarding the postjudgment motion to open, and the
 motion remained pending. Id., 170–71. Years later, when
 a postjudgment motion for fees and retainers was filed
 to compel payment, the trial court ordered that the
 funds still held in escrow be used to pay for some of
 those fees. Id., 171–72. On appeal, this court held that
 ‘‘the court could not make orders for funds to be distrib-
 uted from the escrow account because those funds
 belonged solely to the defendant, until and unless, the
 court opened the judgment and distributed the escrow
 funds, if at all. Accordingly, the court was without
 authority to disburse funds from the escrow account.''
 (Emphasis added; footnote omitted.) Id., 175.
 It is axiomatic that ‘‘[c]ourts have no inherent power
 to transfer property from one spouse to another;
 instead, that power must rest upon an enabling statute.''
 (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Smith v. Smith,
 supra, 249 Conn. 272. Once a dissolution of marriage
 has been rendered, the judgment ‘‘may not be opened
 or set aside unless a motion to open or set aside is
 filed'' in accordance with our statutory rules. General
 Statutes § 52-212a. In Zilkha, the court did not have the
 authority under § 46b-81a to transfer the defendant's
 property—specifically, the funds in the escrow
 account—to pay the fees because the judgment had
 already been rendered. Zilkha v. Zilkha, supra, 159
 Conn. App. 169. Section 46b-81 (a) may only be used
 ‘‘[a]t the time of entering a decree annulling or dissolv-
 ing a marriage . . . .'' (Emphasis added.) This court
 was clear in stating that, ‘‘although the court was free
 to order that the defendant pay some or all of the fees
 . . . it lacked the authority to direct that these pay-
 ments be made from the escrowed funds.'' Zilkha v.
 Zilkha, supra, 174–75. This is because the escrowed
 funds were specific property that ‘‘belonged solely to
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 10 ,0 0 Conn. App. 1
 Nedder v. Nedder

 the defendant . . . .'' Id., 175. Thus, ‘‘until . . . the
 court opened the judgment . . . [it] was without
 authority to disburse funds from the escrow account.''
 (Footnote omitted.) Id. For these reasons, Zilkha is
 inapposite to the present case.
 Here, the parties each submitted proposed orders
 prior to the commencement of trial. The defendant pro-
 posed that the health savings, brokerage, and draw
 accounts should be equally divided between the parties,
 and that the plaintiff should pay 75 percent of the chil-
 dren's uninsured medical expenses going forward. The
 defendant also asked that the court retain jurisdiction
 to enter educational support orders for the children's
 college education. Conversely, the plaintiff's proposed
 orders requested that he retain the three accounts in
 question, provided that they be used for the limited
 purposes of ‘‘the children's medical expenses . . . the
 children's postmajority educational expenses . . .
 [and] to be used for tax payments in 2022.'' At trial,
 the plaintiff testified that the health savings and the
 brokerage accounts were created with the intention of
 using the funds for the children's medical expenses and
 the children's college expenses, respectively, and that
 the draw account was historically used to pay taxes.
 During his testimony, he requested that these accounts
 be designated for use only for those intended and histor-
 ical purposes, and that they be distinguished as not
 existing for his personal benefit. The defendant did not
 raise an objection or express any concern regarding
 the propriety of the plaintiff's proposed use of those
 accounts.
 The defendant argues that, although § 46b-81 pro-
 vides a court with the authority to assign assets or the
 responsibility of debts to a spouse during dissolution,
 it does not allow ‘‘the trial court to order debts, liabilities
 and expenses [to] be serviced from specified assets.''
 The defendant's only cited authority is Zilkha v. Zilkha,
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 0 Conn. App. 1 ,0 11
 Nedder v. Nedder

 supra, 159 Conn. App. 167, which is inapposite to this
 case. Contrary to the defendant's assertion, we con-
 clude that the court did have authority under § 46b-81
 (a) because it was dividing the parties' property and
 rendering the judgment dissolving the marriage. ‘‘The
 purpose of a property assignment is to divide the owner-
 ship of the parties' property equitably. . . . [E]quitable
 remedies are not bound by formula but are molded to
 the needs of justice. . . . Further, we presume that
 the trial court properly considered all of the evidence
 submitted by the parties.'' (Internal quotation marks
 omitted.) Szegda v. Szegda, 97 Conn. App. 426, 436, 904
 A.2d 1266, cert. denied, 280 Conn. 932, 909 A.2d 959
 (2006). As our Supreme Court repeatedly has stated,
 ‘‘trial courts are empowered to deal broadly with prop-
 erty and its equitable division incident to dissolution
 proceedings.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
 Bender v. Bender, 258 Conn. 733, 743, 785 A.2d 197
 (2001).
 On the basis of our plenary review of the record, we
 conclude that it was legally and logically correct for
 the court to equitably divide the parties' property and
 order the accounts at issue to be used for their originally
 intended and historical purposes. Because § 46b-81
 empowered the court to enter these orders, the defen-
 dant's argument fails.
 II
 The defendant's second claim is that the court abused
 its discretion by failing to assign a value to the PVA
 account prior to dividing the parties' property. She
 argues that awarding an asset entirely to one party
 necessitates using a present value method so that the
 value of the asset can be properly offset with other
 marital assets. Because the PVA account was awarded
 solely to the plaintiff, the defendant claims that the
 court necessarily used a present value methodology of
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 12 ,0 0 Conn. App. 1
 Nedder v. Nedder

 valuation, and its failure to assign a value to the account
 constituted an abuse of discretion. We disagree.
 The following additional facts are relevant to this
 claim. The plaintiff ‘‘is a partner and national tax leader
 in a large public accounting firm.'' The PVA account is
 a quasi-pension program available only to the partners
 of his firm that provides for an allocation of a future
 payout to those reaching retirement status, if multiple
 contingent factors are met. At trial, both parties pre-
 sented expert witnesses to testify regarding the PVA
 account. The plaintiff's witness testified that, taking
 into account multiple risk factors, and assuming the
 plaintiff works until the retirement age of sixty-three
 years old,3 the after tax, present value of the PVA
 account was $520,000. The defendant's witness testified
 that he was only retained to issue a rebuttal, and that
 it was his opinion that ‘‘it's impossible to value'' the
 PVA account because there ‘‘were too many variables''
 and it was ‘‘overly speculative.'' Each party submitted
 proposed orders regarding how to divide the marital
 estate. With respect to the PVA account, the defendant
 proposed a formula to be used in entering a domestic
 relations order ultimately allowing 50 percent of the
 benefit to be paid to her. The plaintiff's proposed orders
 suggested a 60/40 division of assets in his favor, with
 the PVA account being retained by him as part of this
 division. Alternatively, the plaintiff supplied an
 amended proposed order ‘‘[i]n accordance with the
 court's . . . request . . . which represents an alterna-
 tive asset division in the event the court elects not to
 present value the plaintiff's PVA [account] and offset
 it with other assets,'' which also proposed that the
 account be awarded exclusively to him.
 During the trial, the plaintiff offered extensive testi-
 mony regarding the PVA account. The plaintiff testified
 3
 During the trial, the plaintiff testified that he was fifty-two years old.
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 0 Conn. App. 1 ,0 13
 Nedder v. Nedder

 that, contrary to the defendant's proposal, ‘‘the firm
 could not do a domestic relations order'' by making
 payments to her from the PVA account because pay-
 ments may only be made to those ‘‘in the capacity as
 owners or partners in the firm,'' and could not be made
 to the defendant because doing so ‘‘would bring along
 . . . regulatory issues around [Securities and Exchange
 Commission] independence, around conflicts, around
 . . . anything and all that we're required to comply with
 as partners in our firm would then be applied to her.''
 During the plaintiff's testimony regarding the PVA
 account, the court interjected many times to ask clarify-
 ing questions and engaged in a prolonged colloquy with
 the plaintiff that spanned nine pages of the transcript.
 At one point, the following exchange took place:
 ‘‘The Court: But the more important point is . . .
 there's no account with this money in it. You can't hand
 it over. It's subject to contingencies. You can't even
 define exactly what the dollar amount would [be] ulti-
 mately . . . [going into] your hands. That's your testi-
 mony.''
 ‘‘[The Plaintiff]: Yes, Your Honor.''
 The court ultimately awarded the PVA account to
 the plaintiff without fixing it with a monetary value or
 stating which methodology of valuation it used.
 It is well established that ‘‘[a]n appellate court will
 not disturb a trial court's orders in domestic relations
 cases unless the court has abused its discretion or it
 is found that it could not reasonably conclude as it did,
 based on the facts presented. . . . In determining
 whether a trial court has abused its broad discretion in
 domestic relations matters, we allow every reasonable
 presumption in favor of the correctness of its action.''
 (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Bender v. Bender,
 supra, 258 Conn. 739–40.
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 The parties do not dispute that, when a court uses
 the present value method, the court is required to
 ‘‘determine the present value of the pension benefits,
 decide the portion to which the nonemployee spouse is
 entitled, and award other property to the nonemployee
 spouse as an offset to the pension benefits to which
 he or she is otherwise entitled.'' (Internal quotation
 marks omitted.) Kent v. DiPaola, 178 Conn. App. 424,
 435, 175 A.3d 601 (2017). The parties additionally agree
 that ‘‘a trial court, in valuing the parties' assets upon
 dissolution, has considerable discretion in selecting and
 applying an appropriate valuation method.'' Krafick v.
 Krafick, 234 Conn. 783, 799, 663 A.2d 365 (1995). The
 contention lies between the defendant's assertion that,
 because the court awarded the PVA account solely to
 the plaintiff, it necessarily used the present value
 method, and the plaintiff's argument that the court
 never indicated it was using the present value method,
 therefore, as long as the court acted equitably by taking
 the value of the account into consideration when calcu-
 lating its financial orders, there is no requirement to
 assign a numerical value to the account.
 ‘‘[W]e note that, as a general proposition, the trial
 court need not necessarily specify a valuation method
 used.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Anderson v.
 Anderson, 160 Conn. App. 341, 352, 125 A.3d 606 (2015).
 In Krafick, our Supreme Court highlighted ‘‘three
 widely approved methods of valuing and distributing
 pension benefits''; Krafick v. Krafick, supra, 234 Conn.
 800; but acknowledged that ‘‘[t]hese methods are not
 exclusive. A trial court retains discretion to select any
 other method to take account of the value of a pension
 asset ‘that might better address the needs and interests
 of the parties' ''; id., 804; so long as the court does
 not ‘‘[remove the] property interest from the scales in
 determining an equitable division of all of the property
 before the court.'' Id., 806. The court does ‘‘need to
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 Nedder v. Nedder

 consider the economic value of the parties' estates. The
 court need not, however, assign specific values to the
 parties' assets.'' Bornemann v. Bornemann, 245 Conn.
 508, 531, 752 A.2d 978 (1998).
 Here, the court did not explicitly state which valua-
 tion method was used when dividing the parties' assets,
 nor did it assign a specific value to the PVA account.
 The defendant asserts that, because the court awarded
 the account entirely to the plaintiff, it necessarily used a
 present value method. However, the defendant provides
 no authority, and we can find none, indicating that
 awarding an asset entirely to one party is proof that a
 valuation was conducted using the present value
 method.
 In this case, the record clearly reveals that significant
 time and effort were spent considering how to value
 and equitably divide the parties' property given the com-
 plexity of the PVA account. As previously stated, in
 relation to the PVA account, the evidence before the
 court included testimony from two experts, as well as
 proposed orders, an amended proposed order at the
 court's request showing an alternative division of the
 PVA account, and the court's own detailed examination
 of the plaintiff during the trial. Unlike in Krafick where,
 ‘‘[d]espite . . . repeated attempts, the trial court
 refused to state the basis of its property distribution
 or to articulate the value'' during a hearing on ‘‘a motion
 to open and clarify the trial court's judgment''; Krafick
 v. Krafick, supra, 234 Conn. 790–91; here the defendant
 did not attempt to clarify any ambiguity in the court's
 order by filing a motion for articulation in accordance
 with our rules of practice. See Practice Book § 66-5;
 see also Mitchell v. Bogonos, 218 Conn. App. 59, 67, 290
 A.3d 825 (2023) (‘‘Until the contrary is shown, the law
 presumes that judges have acted in accordance with
 the law. We do not presume error.'' (Internal quotation
 marks omitted.)). Further, the defendant's own expert
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 witness declined to place a value on the account, testi-
 fying that it was ‘‘impossible'' to do as a result of the
 ‘‘overly speculative'' and variable nature of the account.
 ‘‘[W]hen a party neglects to provide the court informa-
 tion regarding the value of his or her assets, that person
 cannot later complain about the court's valuation.''
 Brooks v. Brooks, 121 Conn. App. 659, 670, 997 A.2d
 504 (2010). Neither may a party argue the impossibility
 of assigning a value to an asset, then later cry foul when
 the court declines to assign a value to the same asset.
 On the basis of our careful review of the record,
 we may reasonably presume that the parties' property
 interest in the PVA account was firmly on the scales
 as the court made its equitable division of the property.
 Although the court did not state which valuation
 method it used, it was not required to do so. Because
 the defendant failed to file a motion for articulation to
 clarify any potential ambiguity in how the court valued
 the parties' property, there is no evidence in the record
 supporting her claim that the court abused its discretion
 by failing to assign a value to the plaintiff's PVA
 account.
 III
 The defendant's final claim is that the court abused
 its discretion regarding the alimony order by (1) improp-
 erly basing it on the plaintiff's gross income as opposed
 to net income, and (2) awarding an improper alimony
 amount because the court improperly factored in the
 child support orders when calculating alimony, and
 because the amount ordered, ‘‘when viewed through
 the lens of the [plaintiff's] net annual income . . . as
 well as the family's station and standard of living,'' was
 inadequate. We disagree.
 When a party calls into question a court's dissolution
 orders, the standard of review is an abuse of discretion.
 We reiterate that, ‘‘[i]n determining whether a trial court
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 Nedder v. Nedder

 has abused its broad discretion in domestic relations
 matters, we allow every reasonable presumption in
 favor of the correctness of its action.'' (Internal quota-
 tion marks omitted.) Olson v. Mohammadu, 310 Conn.
 665, 671, 81 A.3d 215 (2013).
 A
 The parties do not dispute that ‘‘[a] trial court must
 base periodic alimony and child support orders on the
 available net income of the parties.'' (Internal quotation
 marks omitted.) Ludgin v. McGowan, 64 Conn. App.
 355, 358, 780 A.2d 198 (2001). The defendant argues
 that this case is similar to Ludgin because, as in Ludgin,
 the court did not make an explicit finding in its memo-
 randum of decision as to the parties' respective
 incomes, and because the court only mentions gross
 income, and not net income, in the memorandum of
 decision. The defendant thus asserts that it must be
 inferred that the court abused its discretion by improp-
 erly relying on gross income in fashioning the sup-
 port orders.
 Our review of the record reveals that this case is not
 comparable to Ludgin. In Ludgin, the plaintiff's income
 was ‘‘difficult to determine because he [was] a sole
 practitioner and had not yet filed his federal tax return
 at the time of the hearing.'' Id., 357. Additionally, ‘‘[t]he
 court's memorandum of decision [was] devoid of any
 mention of the parties' net incomes,'' and the court
 ‘‘repeatedly referred to and compared the parties' gross
 incomes'' in its decision. Id., 358–59. Here, the plaintiff
 is not a sole practitioner, and his net income was easily
 ascertainable. The trial court had exhibits in evidence
 showing the plaintiff's net earnings for each of the four
 years prior to the dissolution hearing. Further, while the
 decision in Ludgin repeatedly references and compares
 the gross incomes of the parties, here, the court's memo-
 randum of decision only alludes to the plaintiff's gross
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 income one time, and that was in the context of stating
 that the plaintiff is a high income earner and not in the
 context of entering support orders. This case is further
 distinguishable from Ludgin because here, the court
 does mention net income in its decision when determin-
 ing the amount of child support. Although it does not
 repeat the mention of net income when awarding ali-
 mony, the court states that it ‘‘adopts [the plaintiff's]
 proposal that he pays [the defendant] $5000 a month in
 alimony.'' The plaintiff's proposed alimony order clearly
 states that it is calculated as a percentage ‘‘of his net
 income averaged over the last four years.'' (Emphasis
 added.) For these reasons, the defendant's claim that
 the court based its alimony orders on the plaintiff's
 gross income without considering his net income fails.
 B
 The defendant's final argument is that the court erred
 in the amount of alimony it ordered. The defendant first
 states that the court erroneously factored in the child
 support orders when calculating alimony and thus
 improperly conflated the orders. The defendant also
 contends that the amount of alimony ordered was insuf-
 ficient. We disagree.
 ‘‘In determining whether alimony shall be awarded,
 and the duration and amount of the award, the court
 shall consider the evidence presented by each party
 and shall consider the length of the marriage, the causes
 for the annulment, dissolution of the marriage or legal
 separation, the age, health, station, occupation, amount
 and sources of income, earning capacity, vocational
 skills, education, employability, estate and needs of
 each of the parties and the award, if any, which the
 court may make pursuant to section 46b-81, and, in the
 case of a parent to whom the custody of minor children
 has been awarded, the desirability and feasibility of
 such parent's securing employment.'' General Statutes
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 § 46b-82 (a). ‘‘[T]he trial court may place varying
 degrees of importance on each criterion according to
 the factual circumstances of each case. . . . There is
 no additional requirement that the court specifically
 state how it weighed the statutory criteria or explain in
 detail the importance assigned to each statutory factor.''
 (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Ingles v. Ingles, 216
 Conn. App. 782, 795, 286 A.3d 908 (2022).
 In its memorandum of decision, the court provided
 insight into its reasoning for awarding alimony. Specifi-
 cally, the court stated: ‘‘There is no question that [the
 defendant] has given up any career options she may
 have had to raise a family, and it is desirable that she
 continue for a time to do so. She has very limited future
 job prospects, and she has been married to [the plaintiff]
 for over seventeen years. These factors favor alimony.
 But considering her repeated misbehavior and lies
 about it, the court finds the fault factor tips solidly
 against granting her request for significant percentages
 of [the plaintiff's] income. . . .
 ‘‘Instead, mindful that it has granted more child sup-
 port than he proposed, the court adopts [the plaintiff's]
 proposal that he pay [the defendant] $5000 a month in
 alimony. For many years, she will have over $260,000
 in annual child support and $60,000 of annual alimony.
 She will have a house with a reasonable mortgage on
 it and the benefit of additional property orders [equaling
 a total of $75,000]. This is a reasonable sum when the
 court considers all the statutory factors against the facts
 of the case. . . . [The defendant] will be amply pro-
 vided for given that her household will be supported
 for many years by substantial child support and ali-
 mony, and she will have all the equity in the marital
 home—an amount both parties agree is around
 $560,000.''
 The defendant argues that the court improperly com-
 bined the child support and alimony orders, ‘‘assum[ing]
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 that the child support will be utilized by [the defendant]
 to cover her personal expenses and support her needs.''
 However, the court's mention of the ample child sup-
 port when crafting the alimony orders may be reason-
 ably understood as evidence that the court was consid-
 ering the required factors in § 46b-82 (a), including the
 ‘‘amount and sources of income'' and the ‘‘needs of
 each of the parties . . . .'' The plaintiff's net income
 will be significantly reduced by the high amount of child
 support awarded in this case. Additionally, the marital
 home and its equity is awarded to the defendant. The
 court's mentioning of these factors is relevant as they
 affect its determination of how much to award in ali-
 mony, and not necessarily because the court combined
 the child support and alimony orders. In light of the
 foregoing, we conclude the defendant's argument that
 the court conflated the child support and alimony
 orders is without merit.
 We also reject the defendant's argument that the ali-
 mony orders were erroneous as to the amount, repre-
 senting an inadequate amount ‘‘when viewed through
 the lens of [the plaintiff's] net annual income . . . .''
 The defendant states that the $60,000 per year alimony
 award would not allow her ‘‘to live and have an opportu-
 nity to become self-sufficient after years of raising chil-
 dren.''
 ‘‘In determining whether alimony shall be awarded,
 and the . . . amount of the award, the court shall con-
 sider the evidence presented by each party . . . and
 needs of each of the parties and the award, if any, which
 the court may make pursuant to [§] 46b-81 . . . .'' Gen-
 eral Statutes § 46b-82 (a). A court is ‘‘free to credit or
 reject all or part of the testimony given by the [parties].
 On review, we do not reexamine the court's credibility
 assessments.'' Zilkha v. Zilkha, 167 Conn. App. 480,
 489, 144 A.3d 447 (2016).
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 Here, the court did not credit the defendant's testi-
 mony. In assessing the defendant's credibility, the court
 stated: ‘‘[W]hen it was time to preserve evidence in the
 wake of the divorce filing, [the defendant] disposed of
 her mobile phone with whatever pictures and messages
 might have been on it. She claims she lost it and couldn't
 recover anything from it. Considering her other lies and
 the obvious advantage to her of this all too typical loss,
 the court doesn't believe her. It also doesn't believe her
 because of her tone and demeanor as a witness. She had
 canned explanations for her conduct. Her testimony
 seemed more practiced than sincere, and the court rec-
 ognized no convincing remorse over her betrayals or her
 lying. [The plaintiff] made the opposite impression—
 wounded, candid, and regretful. [The defendant's] per-
 jury, her affairs, and her destruction of evidence have
 statutory weight under §§ 46b-81 and 46b-82 . . . .
 They make [her] claims in the lawsuit starkly unappeal-
 ing.'' The court also did not credit her testimony regard-
 ing her need for a larger alimony award. Specifically,
 the court stated that the defendant's claim for support
 ‘‘is disproportionate to her needs, it disregards her fault,
 and it gives no fair recognition to [the plaintiff's] consid-
 erable financial achievements.'' Finally, the court stated
 that the defendant ‘‘will be supported for many years''
 when taking into account the support orders and that
 she was awarded the marital home, including its equity
 of approximately $560,000. In its discretion, the court
 stated that the alimony orders represented ‘‘a reason-
 able sum when the court considers all the statutory
 factors against the facts of the case.''
 The record reveals that the court properly considered
 the criteria for determining what amount of alimony to
 award in accordance with § 46b-82 (a). It is within a
 court's discretion to place ‘‘varying degrees of impor-
 tance on each criterion according to the factual circum-
 stances of each case.'' (Internal quotation marks omit-
 ted.) Ingles v. Ingles, supra, 216 Conn. App. 795. On
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 the basis of the facts, evidence, and findings in the
 record, we cannot agree that the court abused its discre-
 tion by ordering an insufficient alimony award.
 The judgment is affirmed.
 In this opinion the other judges concurred.