q

QPRT Back to Top

See Qualified Personal Residence Trust.

QSST Back to Top

For a trust to own shares in an S corporation, the trust must meet specific requirements of qualifying as a Qualified Subchapter S Trust, or QSST. An LLC is not subject to these complexities and therefore can be more flexible to use in an estate planning context.

Qualified Domestic Relations Order Back to Top

A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is a mechanism to divide a retirement account between spouses in a divorce without triggering income tax to you on the payment of retirement benefits. Without these rules if you gave your spouse an interest in a pension plan as a part of your divorce that transfer could trigger negative tax consequences. QDROs, are critical to resolving many divorces in that this mechanism enables a divorcing couple to divide up a pension plan. Without a QDRO retirement plan assets would not be divisible. Without a QDRO the plan participant would have to report the distributions to the ex-spouse in income. Instead, a QDRO results in the ex-spouse who is receiving the participant's spouse's distributions reporting the income. A QDRO is an order, judgment, or decree, that acknowledges or creates the existence of right for someone other than the participant/ex-spouse to receive some or all of the participant's qualified plan benefits. It is made pursuant to state domestic relations law. It relates to providing child support, alimony, or marital property rights of a spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent of a plan participant.

Qualified Domestic Trust (Q-DOT) Back to Top

If your spouse is not a United States citizen, your estate will not be entitled to claim the benefit of the unlimited marital deduction except to the extent that assets are transferred into this special trust. Where one spouse is not a citizen, the gift tax marital deduction is limited to $100,000 per annum.

Qualified Personal Residence Trust Back to Top

A Qualified Personal Residence Trust, or QPRT, is a special trust designed to hold ownership of part or all your personal residence (home or second home). The trust is established for a number of years (term) by you (grantor). After the term ends your heirs, typically children (but not later generations) receive ownership of the house. In some cases the QPRT on ending transfers title to a trust for your heirs instead of directly to them. During the term of the QPRT you can live in the house rent free. For gift tax purposes a QPRT reduces, often substantially, the value of the house. All appreciation post date of transfer is also removed from your taxable estate. If you die before the term ends the house reverts back to your estate.

Qualified Terminable Interest Trust (Q-TIP) Back to Top

A trust that qualifies for the unlimited marital tax exclusion. Therefore, there will be no estate tax on the value of the property transferred to your spouse in a Q-TIP trust on your death. Your spouse must receive all income at least annually. The Q-TIP enables your spouse to obtain income and other benefits, your estate avoids tax, and you can designate who will receive the property remaining in the trust on your spouse's death.

Quasi-Fiduciary Back to Top

In many sophisticated trust documents, positions other than trustee are provided for. These may include a trust protector or trust adviser (someone who might be authorized to change trustees or the state law that governs trusts), a trust investment adviser (who manages trust assets), a distribution committee (makes distribution decisions) and perhaps others. Sometimes these persons are referred to as "quasi-fiduciaries" in that their roles are not as broad as a trustee's role. The term "quasi-fiduciary" should be used carefully, as a trust protector, for example, might be as much of a fiduciary as a trustee.

Quit Claim Deed Back to Top

A quit claim deed is a form of deed used to transfer property. The "quit claim" means that you are transferring whatever rights you have in the property to the transferee. This contrasts with a deed in which you make representations and warranties (e.g. that you own the property out right with good title, etc.).

Quit Deed Back to Top

A "Quit Deed" is really a reference to a "quit claim deed". This is a deed in which a person who may have an interest in a property (called the "Grantor') signs a deed transferring whatever interests they may have in the property to someone else (the "Grantee"). The person signing the quit claim deed does not make all the representations that a person singing a "full" deed (called a bargain and sale deed with covenants against grantor's acts).