QDOT Trust

[stevevogelnu]

Has anybody here looked into a QDOT trust? It is designed so that a non-citizen spouse does not have to pay inheritance taxes on death of the citizen spouse. It seems non-citizen spouses often have difficulty making the tax payments and can get into quite a jam.

[2mike&jin]

Yes, I set it up inside of my revocable trust in the event of my death to avoid the estate taxes that would befall my new wife. The long and short of it is that administration by a financial institution is required and they will control many items, upon your death. I wrote the Qdot with my attorneys help to restrict what the financial institution could do in terms of "investment decisions". I.e., if one loves bonds - I wrote in there they couldn't sell any bonds without my wife's permission. ETC..ETC.

 

 

For us, I was counting the days until I could get my Chinese Wife to test and become a US Citizen. This happened last July/August and we made our trek to the Lawyers office in Las Vegas to "UPDATE" all of our individual and Joint Trusts - reflecting her new Name Change (Took my last name), and REDACTING out all the QDOT stuff from my revocable trust, since it was no longer necessary. I am greatly relieved. Cost - my slick lawyers in LV charge about $2500 a shot a the basic document but remarkably charge me the same thing for a "scrub/update". We have 4 of them (Mine, Hers, Ours, and our 3 year old Son's Irrevocable Trust) and you can do the math. Other than adding a NEW TURST FOR our new Son arriving this year - we should be set for the foreseeable future unless there are remarkable changes in the Law. Even a change to another state of domicile usually will not trigger update. So, bottom line, I spent about $20K in LEGAL FEES for Pre-Nupt, Interim Trusts, and final Trusts subsequent to her becoming a citizen - but it was an Insurance Policy agains the Gov't scooping as much as 55%, in the event of my death, vice 0!

 

Best of Luck.

 

 

I

[knloregon]

" in the event of my death " : ) Mike, may you and yours stay: forever young!

 

-- but seriously, you really are one of the best posters here, when the 'devil is in the details!' ~

[2mike&jin]

Thanks - I wonder about the veracity and soundness of my decisions - as our new son arrives this July and I start drawing my Social Insecurity payments this November! I'm going to continue with my Nike approach - Just Do it....when it comes to exercise, eating and the most important item - drinking beer!