Marital Trust
Categories: Trusts and Estates
If it’s true that the only certain things in life are death and taxes, then we shouldn’t be surprised that our stuff is taxed even after we die. That’s right: whatever we leave to our heirs, they’re gonna have to pay taxes on it. Unless, that is, our heir is our spouse and we’ve set up a marital trust.
A “marital trust” is a special kind of trust that allows our surviving spouse to go ahead and not pay estate taxes on what we leave them. Married folk are supposed to be able to pass assets and wealth back and forth without incurring a tax penalty; marital trusts allow this to continue even after one spouse dies.
Now, when the second spouse dies, all bets are off. Whoever inherits the trust at that point—it’s usually kids or other relatives, though we have heard tales of trusts being left to family pets, which is sweet but a little weird—is going to have to pay estate taxes on whatever’s left. There are several kinds of marital trusts, and there are also trusts designed to help minimize the tax impact on non-spouse heirs, so we should definitely consult someone if we’re looking to set up a trust of our own.
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machine. well a partnership is just the merging
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should they happen. partnerships carry a lot of financial danger if one partner
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evil partner enters into a stupid company bankrupting contract, well then [bad contract sold to unsuspecting victim]
both parties pay for it. the innocent partner pays just as much in the form of
whatever financial damages befall the partnership as the evil one, and
partnership liabilities include personal assets if the partnership is structured
like a general partnership with limited partners having no personal liability so [ liability structures defined]
for all the good that a partnership can have it can get bad and ugly so you got
to enter partnerships carefully. spend lots of dough on lawyers before you set
it up so you don't have to after. [money exchanged for partnership contract ]