MARCH 9, 2015 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 10
A letter from a reader asks: “My husband and I set up a revocable trust which will divide our assets in half when one of us dies. This was to avoid estate taxes. Now that estate taxes are no longer a problem, are there still benefits to splitting our assets when one of us has died?”
What a great question!
The short answer: if your combined estate is well under the $5.43 million threshold for estate taxes (in 2015), there is probably no tax reason for splitting the trust on the first death. If your combined estate is less than two times that figure, the answer is probably the same. But that’s not to say that there’s no reason to provide for a split of the trust — it’s just not a tax reason.
Here are some circumstances in which you might still want to split your trust — not necessarily in half, but into two shares — on the first spouse’s death:
- You might worry about what will happen with the surviving spouse after one spouse dies. Will he or she remarry? Become infirm and susceptible to influence from people outside the family? Begin to favor one child over the others, or disfavor one child? If you feel strongly that “your” share of the estate (and here we’re talking as much about a “moral share”, if you will, as a legal share) needs to be locked down if you die first, then you might still want to provide for a trust split on the first death. Let us talk — and by “us” I mean you, your husband and your lawyer, all together.
- You might feel like some of the assets are really yours, not your spouse’s. Did you receive a substantial inheritance that you have kept separate? Did you bring more assets to the marriage? Is there a particular asset (your home, or a summer cottage where your children spent every summer, or stock in a family business, or something similar) that you feel particularly strongly about passing to your children? Time for us to talk.
- Is this a second marriage, with children from prior marriages? We should probably discuss how the two of you feel about the likely connection the surviving spouse will maintain with stepchildren.
- Does your spouse have a problem managing money, or completely different ideas from yours about how to invest or maintain assets? Guess what — we need to talk.
- Do either (or both) of you own real property in another state? Because the estate tax answers might be different.
Note a common thread here: there are no easy, pat answers. Each consideration means we need to talk through what’s important to you and to your spouse, and what is legally possible — and efficient.
There are some downsides to splitting the trust on the first death. For one, it probably increases the cost of managing the trust. It certainly increases the responsibility of the surviving spouse to account to the children, and maybe (depending on your trust’s terms) even grandchildren or others. It might (but probably won’t — we don’t want to alarm you unnecessarily) actually increase income taxes. It probably will mean that the surviving spouse has some limitations in how they deal with the portion of the trust that becomes irrevocable on the first death — and that can be emotionally troubling. And remember that what’s sauce for the goose — well, you know the rest of that aphorism.
Incidentally, the same answers apply to a couple who never did set up a trust that splits on the first death. Even though taxes may not compel such a split, it might be a choice that makes the couple feel more comfortable about what will happen after the first death.
Here’s a thought experiment for you: we find that it’s relatively easy for married couples to imagine what life would be like if one spouse died (though it may not be pleasant to contemplate). What’s more challenging is to imagine what life will be like ten, or fifteen, or twenty years after your spouse dies — or (harder still) what life will be like for your spouse twenty years after you die.
The same client goes on:
“Is the second trust still vulnerable to nursing home expenses?”
Another good question. It takes a little explaining, but the journey should be worth it.
If you set up a trust for yourself (let’s assume you are single for a moment) and then enter a nursing home, your assets will probably not be protected from the cost of the nursing home. That’s an overgeneralization — there are actually some kinds of trusts that might protect your assets from long-term care costs. But they will usually have been in place for five years, and be very restrictive. For the moment, let’s just go with “no, the trust you create for yourself is not safe from nursing home costs”.
If your spouse dies and leaves his or her entire estate to you outright, then the trust you set up will look the same. Even if you and your spouse set up a joint trust and then he or she dies, leaving you with the power to revoke the whole trust, that will be the same as the trust you set up with your own assets. So no, the trust that does not split into two shares on the first death will not (usually) protect against nursing home costs.
But if your joint revocable trust splits into a revocable and an irrevocable share on the first death, the answer may be different. If that seems like a likely scenario, or you particularly want to pursue protection from long-term care costs, then that may be another reason for considering a split on the first death — even though there is still no estate tax reason to make the split.
This client keeps asking really good questions:
“What if my husband decides to make large gifts out of the second trust. Can he do that ?”
Sorry to be a lawyer here, but the answer is: “it depends”. Mostly it depends on the language of the trust.
Of course there’s another reality. If the surviving spouse is the trustee of the trust, and the trust terms say “whatever else he/she does, he/she is not to give a single cent to my worthless brother Arnold,” and the surviving spouse gives a few thousand dollars to Arnold, who is going to enforce the trust’s terms? The children? They likely won’t find out about it until well after it happens, and you know how likely Arnold is to pay the money back, right?
Once again, this question needs to be the subject of more discussion with your lawyer. But what excellent questions.
Important note: These off-the-cuff answers are just that, and they really should encourage you to discuss the questions with your lawyer in some depth. If you are not an Arizonan, they may not be correct at all. If we are not your lawyers, you might get a different answer, or at least different emphasis. These are actually hard questions.
