How Do I Protect My Spouse?
Leaving everything to your spouse outright gives them full control — but also means assets can shift to a new family if life later changes. A QTIP trust can give your spouse all the lifetime income they need while preserving the principal for your children or other beneficiaries.
What you should know
- An outright bequest gives your surviving spouse complete legal ownership, including the right to spend, retitle, or redirect those assets to a new family.
- A QTIP trust (Qualified Terminable Interest Property) provides your spouse with all trust income for life, while preserving the principal for the people you ultimately want to inherit.
- Both an outright bequest and a QTIP qualify for the unlimited marital deduction — no federal estate tax is owed at the first spouse’s death either way.
- In a blended family, a Survivor’s Trust Protective Provision can let your spouse live normally during everyday life and only activate protections if a specific later circumstance — like remarriage — occurs.
- These structures are not about distrust. They are about honesty about the unknowns that come after one spouse is gone.
Outright or survivor’s trust — which fits how you want to provide for your spouse?
Five short choices. Brent reads your answer back to you at the end.
A 30-second guided quiz. Get a personal read on which structure fits.