This type of trust can be useful for protecting assets in the event the surviving spouse remarries.

While a marital trust can give the surviving spouse income, it can be constructed to leave all the trust's assets to the grantor's children once both spouses are dead.

Since Trust B is subject to estate tax, as long as the amount placed in it is less than the exemptable amount, no federal estate tax is due. Since Trust A is considered a marital deduction trust for the benefit of the surviving spouse, any assets put there are tax exempt.

Trust A now becomes a revocable trust, and the survivor is wholly in control of its assets.

The reasons a person may create a marital trust vary.

For example, an individual may create one to provide income for his spouse after his death.