Trust · SLAT
Spousal Lifetime Access Trust
Explication simple
A SLAT is an irrevocable lifetime gift trust created by one spouse for the other spouse and often descendants, seeking to move assets outside the donor's estate while preserving indirect family access through discretionary distributions.
- The donor keeps no enforceable right
- The donor should not retain an enforceable right to trust property.
- Divorce, death or creditors can end practical access
- Divorce, death of the beneficiary spouse, and creditor events can end practical access.
- Mirror-image trusts risk the reciprocal-trust rule
- Near-mirror SLATs created by both spouses can trigger reciprocal-trust concerns.
Who does what in a trust
- Grantor / settlor Creates the trust and contributes property under the governing terms.
- Trust Holds legal title and defines powers, standards, beneficiaries, and duration.
- Trustee Administers, invests, accounts, and distributes under the document and governing law.
- Beneficiaries Receive permitted benefits now or later under the distribution terms.
Approfondir
Personnes, calendrier et biens
Use lifetime exclusion while allowing discretionary support for a spouse.
- Qui le constitue
- One spouse as donor.
- Qui agit en qualité de fiduciaire
- Beneficiary spouse with constrained powers, an independent trustee, or both.
- Qui peut être bénéficiaire
- Nondonor spouse and often descendants.
- Date d'entrée en vigueur
- During marriage when funded.
- Actifs couramment pris en compte
- Marketable investments; Appreciating business interests; Life insurance in some designs
Fiscalité, transmission et contrôle
A completed gift may use exclusion; grantor-trust status is common; estate inclusion and reciprocal-trust risks depend on powers and facts.
- Considérations relatives à la taxe sur les donations
- Classify any lifetime contribution or transfer under current gift-tax law. Whether it is a completed gift, requires valuation or Form 709 reporting, qualifies for an exclusion, or affects GST allocation depends on the transfer, retained powers, beneficiary rights, timing, and governing terms.
- Traitement fiscal des revenus
- often grantor trust, design-dependent
- Potentiel de réduction de l'impôt successoral
- high potential
- Planification GST
- possible
- Caractéristiques de protection des actifs
- often meaningful for beneficiaries
- Considérations relatives au contrôle
- Distributions should be fiduciary decisions, not a side agreement; divorce and spouse-death contingencies need design attention.
Adéquation à la planification et administration
Domestic-relations, creditor, trustee, state-tax, and self-settled-trust rules can affect outcomes.
- Utilisateurs typiques
- Married high-net-worth families; Business owners; Families using lifetime gifts
- Cas où cela peut convenir
- A married donor can make a genuine irrevocable gift and remain financially secure without a right to the assets.
- Cas où cela peut ne pas convenir
- The donor depends on access, the marriage is unstable, or both spouses expect to recreate ownership through matching trusts.
- Considérations étatiques
- Domestic-relations, creditor, trustee, state-tax, and self-settled-trust rules can affect outcomes.
- Souvent envisagé par les couples mariés
- specifically designed for married couples
- Utilisation par les propriétaires d'entreprise
- often useful
- Utilisation pour les patrimoines élevés
- commonly suited
- Utilisation à des fins philanthropiques
- not primary
- Complexité relative
- very high
- Niveau de coût typique
- very high
Avantages potentiels et limites
Avantages potentiels
- Potential estate freeze
- Spousal beneficiary
- Descendant planning
- Possible grantor-trust benefits
Limites et compromis
- Loss of donor access
- Marriage dependency
- Reciprocal-trust risk
- Administration and gift reporting
Erreurs courantes
Two identical trusts
Donor pays personal bills from trust
No divorce provision
Transfer leaves donor insecure
Comment cela peut se dérouler
One spouse gifts a diversified portfolio to a SLAT with an independent trustee for the other spouse and descendants; the donor keeps ample separate assets and the couple documents that distributions are not promised.
À titre illustratif uniquement. Des faits, documents, dates et dispositions du droit étatique différents peuvent modifier l'analyse.
Questions sur Spousal Lifetime Access Trust
What determines how this trust works?
The signed governing terms, valid funding, retained powers, trustee authority, beneficiary rights, administration, tax classification, timing, and applicable state and federal law—not the trust name by itself.
Does this kind of trust automatically reduce tax or protect assets?
No automatic result follows from the label. Income, gift, estate, and GST tax classifications are separate questions, and creditor treatment depends on the settlor's and beneficiaries' rights, governing law, timing, and administration.
What should be verified before creating or funding the trust?
Verify the objective, governing instrument, fiduciaries, beneficiary standards, title and transfer restrictions, valuation, tax reporting, liquidity, governing state, expected administration, costs, and advice from appropriately qualified professionals.
Sources
- IRS Form 709 and instructionsInternal Revenue Service · United States—federal
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, estate and gift taxesU.S. Government Publishing Office · United States—federal
- Internal Revenue Code, estate and gift tax subtitleU.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel · United States—federal
- Uniform Trust CodeUniform Law Commission · United States (general; state law varies)
Les sources étayent les informations éducatives générales à la date de révision indiquée. Les documents officiels sont susceptibles d'évoluer, et les liens vers les sources ne remplacent pas une analyse professionnelle adaptée à chaque situation particulière. Ne constitue pas un conseil juridique, fiscal, d'investissement ou comptable.