A SLAT is how married couples use today's elevated lifetime exemption without feeling like they are giving up access. You fund an irrevocable trust for your spouse and descendants. Your spouse is a beneficiary, the trustee can distribute to them, and the assets — including all future appreciation — sit outside both your estate and your spouse's.
Key Points
Under current federal law, the lifetime gift and GST exemption is approximately $15M per individual in 2026 (subject to change by future legislation). A SLAT lets you use exemption now, take advantage of the level available under current law, and move future appreciation out of the estate while keeping practical access through your spouse.
If both spouses create SLATs for each other with substantially similar terms, the IRS applies the reciprocal trust doctrine and treats each spouse as having created a trust for themselves — collapsing the strategy and pulling both trusts back into each estate. We design around this with differentiated terms, timing, trustees, distribution standards, beneficiary classes, and funding assets.
Frequently Asked
The beneficiary spouse is still a beneficiary unless the trust defines 'spouse' as the current spouse from time to time — which we typically include. Even with that drafting, the practical reality is that indirect access ends. SLATs work best in long, stable marriages.
Indirect access ends, but the assets remain in trust for the descendants outside the estate. We sometimes pair SLATs with life insurance held in an ILIT to replace the lost access in that scenario.
Related
Next Step
Fixed-fee estate planning for clients in New York, New Jersey, and Ohio.
Drew Jacobs is licensed in New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice or an offer to represent you in a jurisdiction in which we are not licensed.