Disclaimer Will Law and Legal Definition
A disclaimer will is a standard Will with a trust provision that a surviving spouse can elect to utilize if the surviving spouse believes that his or her estate could be subject to federal estate tax upon his or her death. This is a flexible estate planning tool that can be implemented to benefit married couples whose combined estates are approaching or exceed the lifetime exemption amount for federal estate tax. The disclaimer will allows outright marital deduction bequest of the entire residuary estate to the surviving spouse. If the surviving spouse wishes to disclaim the bequest in whole or in part, the disclaimed property will be passed into a trust for the benefit of the surviving spouse. This results in substantial tax savings to the estate of the surviving spouse.
