Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT)

A Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) is an irrevocable trust in which one spouse (the donor spouse) makes a gift into a trust that names the other spouse (the beneficiary spouse) as a current beneficiary. Because the gift is irrevocable, the assets leave the donor spouse's taxable estate. But because the beneficiary spouse can receive distributions, the couple retains some indirect economic access to those assets — a meaningful comfort that distinguishes the SLAT from structures with no retained access whatsoever.

SLATs are frequently evaluated when families want to use a lifetime gift-tax exemption — the amount set by law that individuals may transfer free of gift tax during their lives — without feeling they have permanently surrendered access to those funds. Families considering their options at substantial net worth levels sometimes weigh a SLAT against other irrevocable trust strategies as part of broader wealth management planning.

Two risks deserve careful attention. First, if the beneficiary spouse dies before the donor spouse, indirect access disappears entirely — the assets remain in trust for other named beneficiaries such as children. Second, if both spouses each create a SLAT for the other (a "reciprocal SLAT" arrangement), the IRS may apply the reciprocal trust doctrine and pull both trusts back into the estate. A common confusion is believing the donor spouse can directly access trust funds — they generally cannot. A qualified attorney must evaluate any particular family's circumstances.