Usually, the threshold estate planning question is: Do I need an Oklahoma revocable trust or an Oklahoma Last Will and Testament?
Once that question is answered and the answer is an “Oklahoma revocable trust”, the question becomes ___ Does a married couple need one joint trust or one trust for each spouse?
The answer to this question is relatively easy for me: Almost always it is a joint trust. However, there are circumstances where a married couple can use a trust for each spouse more effectively than they can use one joint spouse. Below is a table summarizing the benefits of a joint trust versus separate trusts for each spouse:
| 1 Family Trust | 2 Separate Trusts |
| Easy to administer during the couple’s life since there is only trust rather than two separate trusts | Allows a couple to maintain separate assets to comply with a pre-nuptial agreement |
| Easy to track and transfer property when there is only one trust to which to make transfers | In a few cases where the marital estate is very very large (probably at least valued at $23,000,000.00), there may be some federal estate tax planning benefit to each spouse having their own trust |
| Less expensive and less complex to administer when the first spouse passes away | Protecting inheritance property. If one spouse is going to inherit property, having a separate trust for the inheriting spouse allows the inheritance property to [usually] remain separate from the marital estate |
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