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Marital Universal Revocable Living Trust

Designed for a married couple wanting to avoid probate and to control the management of assets

The Marital Universal RLT is a Co-Grantor Revocable Living Trust designed for a married couple wanting to avoid probate and to control the management and disposition of their assets after death.  It also utilizes so-called A/B/C Trust formats, as necessary, when certain estate value conditions deem their proper use.

The assets of this trust will be under the complete control of both husband and wife in the same manner as existed before the trust was established.  If so desired, the sole and separate property designation(s) of certain assets can still be retained by either spouse with this trust format.  Assets can also be recast/commingled as jointly owned property into community property and/or tenants-in-common property.  If directed, the trustee can distribute trust assets directly from the trust to the grantors’ heirs (or to their respective heirs, as applicable) immediately upon the death of the surviving grantor.  And if previously stipulated, certain sole & separate assets, and even undivided interests in jointly owned property, may be distributed to the heirs of the first grantor to die immediately upon his/her decease or upon the death of the second spouse to die.

Where did the name "Marital Universal Trust" come from?
The Marital Universal Trust is so called because it can function as three (3) distinctly different planning formats in one governing document.  Using multiple design features, it allows for flexibility in planning the transfer of a family estate even after the trust has been established.  The universal format provides: (i) a simple probate avoidance marital trust (without any “tax planning” provisions) that does not require a partitioning of assets at the first spouse’s death (as into Trusts “A” & “B”) and gives complete control to the surviving grantor/spouse over all trust assets; (ii) a credit shelter trust format – which requires partitioning at the death of the first spouse to die (into Trusts “A” & “B”) for estate tax planning purposes wherein the estate of the first spouse to die would be placed (at his/her decease) in the irrevocable Trust “B” of which the surviving grantor had limited access; and, (iii) a marital trust that will create, at the death of the first spouse to die, Trust “A” (the surviving spouse’s trust), Trust “B” (the credit shelter trust),  and Trust “C” (the QTIP trust).

The Marital Universal Trust has been designed to utilize the benefits of all three structures as needed.  The actual format ultimately used will be contingent upon one or both of two occurrences: (i) the grantors’ utilization (or not) of the “Apportionment Amendment” that mandates the creation of the Credit Shelter Trust at the death of the first spouse to die even though it is not needed for estate tax purposes, and/or (ii) whether or not the aggregate value of the grantors’ respective estates exceeds the then available federal exemption equivalent amount existing in the year of death of the first grantor to die.

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