The first-line feature of the Marital Universal Trust is that it canfunction as a simple, probate avoidance - non A/B - trust without the applications of any tax-planning formats. That means it would not be necessary to partition the estate of the first spouse to die (into Trust B) at his/her death and therefore everything would be under the surviving spouse's control.

For estate tax planning purposes, the non-A/B format will be adequate for couples having an estate with an aggregate value less than the federal exemption equivalent amount in effect in the year the first spouse dies.

It should be noted that not partitioning the assets when the first spouse dies will cause forfeiture of protection for the decedent spouse's portion of the estate from potential creditor's of the surviving spouse. If that is considered a planning problem, it can be remedied through the use of an addendum - provided in every clients' Estate Planning Portfolio.