ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how estate tax portability likely functions in the lives of married couples who are subject to the estate tax. Portability is a salutary addition to the law of wealth transfer taxation that minimizes complexity in estate planning and likely reduces the use of certain qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trusts, which minimize the autonomy of the surviving spouse, typically the woman, because a QTIP trust allows the marital deduction for one spouse's transfer of the underlying property to a third party and not to the other spouse. The QTIP provisions are an exception to the marital deduction terminable interest rule, which generally requires an outright transfer to obtain the benefit of the deduction. Portability was designed to benefit the typical married couple where one spouse, usually the husband, owns all or a majority of the couple's property during their joint lifetimes but wants to leave all of his property to his wife when he dies.
