Which of the following trusts can qualify for the marital deduction and allow the testator to control disposition of corpus after the surviving spouse's death?

• A. Estate trust
• B. Outright bequest
• C. GPA marital trust
• D. QTIP trust

Answer: (D)

The concept at play is using a trust structure that qualifies for the unlimited marital deduction while still letting the first testator control what happens to the trust principal after the surviving spouse dies. A QTIP trust does this by providing that all income goes to the surviving spouse for life, with the surviving spouse having no general power to access or divert the principal. This setup makes the trust eligible for the marital deduction at the first death because the surviving spouse is the income beneficiary, not the owner of the trust assets.

Crucially, the testator can specify who receives the trust principal after the surviving spouse dies. The remainder beneficiaries are determined by the trust terms chosen at the first death, so the testator preserves control over the disposition of the corpus after the spouse’s death, while still allowing the property to pass under the marital deduction.

Why the other options don’t fit as well: an outright bequest to the spouse would provide no mechanism to direct what happens to the assets after the spouse dies, forfeiting that post-death control. A trust where the surviving spouse has a general power of appointment would typically disqualify the property for the marital deduction because the assets could be pulled into the spouse’s estate. An estate trust (depending on its design) generally wouldn’t achieve both the unlimited deduction and the desired post-survivor control in the clear, standard way that a QTIP trust does.

So, the QTIP trust best balances preserving the marital deduction with the testator’s ability to control the corpus after the surviving spouse’s death.