QTIP trust arrangements are useful where the decedent's children might be at risk of losing their interest in property due to the surviving spouse's unwillingness to share. They are also useful where the decedent does not want to risk diversion of the estate to persons outside of the decedent's own family if the surviving spouse remarries.

The QTIP election could prove to be a difficult one for the executor. It could, in the second-marriage situations described above, put the executor in a position of having to choose between a surviving spouse and remainder beneficiaries. Therefore, the executor should either be given a direction to elect for the marital deduction, or authorization to do so coupled with clear criteria for a contrary election.

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