Marital-Deduction Trust

Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust

A trust into which the trustor deposits funds and other assets to provide for a surviving spouse while also maintaining control of what happens to those assets after the surviving spouse dies. In a Q-TIP, the trustor names his/her surviving spouse as beneficiary and provides that income and/or principal from the trust shall pass to that spouse upon the trustor's death. However, when the surviving spouse also dies, what remains in the trust is distributed to heirs as if it had been a part of the trustor's estate. A Q-TIP is a common trust when a person has children from a previous marriage; that Q-TIP provides for the surviving spouse but later is transferred to children from one's first marriage to ensure that the estate takes care of them as well.

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marital-deduction trust

A trust designed to pass assets to a spouse. The trust is used instead of leaving the assets to the spouse directly. The beneficiary receives income from the trust until his or her death, at which time the trust's assets are distributed or the trust is included in the deceased's estate. See also QTIP trust.