The Qualified Domestic Trust

As stated in our previous post, the unlimited marital deduction is disallowed for distributions to non-citizen spouses. There is an exception to this disallowance however. A Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT) can be created whereby property can pass to the non-citizen surviving spouse and qualify for the marital deduction. The QDOT can be created post-death provided that the property is transferred to the trust or is irrevocably assigned prior to the estate tax return due date.