Free Guide · Florida Spousal Lifetime Access Trust
The Spousal Trust Audit
Does your SLAT use the 2022 repair, or predate it?
A spousal lifetime access trust moves assets permanently out of your taxable estate while leaving your household indirect access through your spouse. Its oldest known weakness was what happened if that spouse died first — and in 2022 the Florida Legislature fixed it.
But the fix is narrow. It reaches only trusts that satisfy three specific conditions, and that actually name the grantor after the spouse's death. Most Florida SLATs were signed before the rule existed.
If yours was drafted before mid-2022, it was built against a rule that no longer applies.
Free Download · 8 pages
Get The Spousal Trust Audit
Fifteen questions that tell you, in about ten minutes, whether your trust qualifies for the 2022 repair or was drafted against the rule it replaced. Enter your details and the audit is sent straight to your inbox.
What is inside the audit
Eight pages, written for the owner rather than the drafter, and built entirely on Florida authority.
- The three conditions, in full. What Fla. Stat. § 736.0505(3) actually requires — and why failing any one of them takes the trust outside the subsection entirely.
- A 15-question scored diagnostic. Two sections, each question tied to the provision that governs it, with a running risk score out of 15.
- Your Exposure Rating. Three bands, each with a plain-English read on where you stand and what to do about it.
- The five-step review sequence. The order Aspire Legal Solutions uses, starting with the gate that decides whether anything below it matters.
- A plain-English glossary. Every term and authority, in the language you would use with your own family.
One limit governs all of it. Section 736.0505(3) opens with the words “Subject to the provisions of s. 726.105.” Florida's fraudulent-transfer statute sits on top of the entire subsection and applies to the funding no matter how well the trust is drafted. Asset protection is built when nothing is wrong. A structure funded after a problem appears tends to become a second problem.
Three of the fifteen questions
If any of these gives you pause, the audit is worth ten minutes.
- Was your spousal lifetime access trust signed before the middle of 2022?
- Are you a permissible beneficiary at any point during your spouse's lifetime, even in a remote contingency?
- Is there a claim, demand, lawsuit, audit, or pending dispute in the picture — or was there one when the trust was funded?
The other twelve cover the post-death provision most documents are missing, whether your spouse's interest actually runs for life, reciprocal trusts, the net-worth threshold below which the structure is hard to justify, the cost of the lost basis step-up, divorce as a contingency the statute never addresses, who your trustee is today, which pocket the funding came from, and whether a contemporaneous solvency record exists. Download the audit to work through all fifteen.
Who this is for
Married Florida owners with a spousal lifetime access trust already signed, particularly one signed before mid-2022; married owners whose advisors have raised a SLAT and who want to know what to ask; physicians, dentists, attorneys and other practice owners carrying professional liability exposure; real estate investors and private lenders who have signed personal guarantees; and business owners whose combined net worth is approaching or past the federal exemption.
If your net worth is under roughly $5 million, the audit will mostly tell you that Florida's native tools already do the work — which is a useful answer, and a cheaper one.
Frequently asked questions
My SLAT was signed before 2022. Is it still good?
It may be fine, and it may be leaving protection on the table. Before the 2022 amendment, one common drafting choice was necessary to keep the trust protected. It is no longer necessary, and a document still carrying it is worth a second read. The audit walks through how to tell.
Does a SLAT protect assets from a claim that already exists?
No. Fla. Stat. § 736.0505(3) opens with the words “Subject to the provisions of s. 726.105.” Florida's fraudulent-transfer statute sits on top of the entire subsection and applies to the funding regardless of how well the trust is drafted. Asset protection is built when nothing is wrong.
Do I need a SLAT if my net worth is under the federal exemption?
Often not. Florida's native protections already do a great deal of this work, they cost less, and unlike a SLAT they are reversible. The audit identifies the threshold and lists the tools worth checking first.
Who should run this audit?
Married Florida owners with a spousal lifetime access trust already signed, particularly one signed before mid-2022, and married owners whose advisors have raised a SLAT and who want to know what to ask before they sign.
Free Download
The Spousal Trust Audit
Fifteen questions, the three conditions in full, and the five-step review sequence.
Download the AuditComplimentary Discovery Call
Not Sure Where to Get Started?
Book a free 15-minute Discovery Call with our Legal Solutions Coordinators. Bring the trust instrument itself rather than the summary letter, any amendments, and the name of whoever is trustee today. If you do not have a trust yet and are being pitched one, bring the proposal. Prefer the phone? Call 866.725.2818.
Book a Free Discovery CallThis page and the guide it offers are for educational purposes only and are not legal or tax advice. Reading either one does not create an attorney-client relationship. Joseph E. Seagle is licensed in Florida only. The controlling authority discussed here is the Florida Trust Code, Fla. Stat. § 736.0505, together with § 726.105, § 605.0503, § 689.15, § 222.21(2) and § 61.075, and the federal gift and estate tax provisions referenced. Creditor treatment of self-settled and spousal trusts is state law and differs materially across state lines. Most states have no equivalent to § 736.0505(3), so nothing here describes what happens to a trust governed by another state's law or to property you own outside Florida — confirm with counsel licensed where it sits. § 736.0505(3) is expressly subject to Florida's fraudulent-transfer statute and offers no protection to a transfer made when a claim is pending or reasonably anticipated. Nothing here is a prediction about any particular matter, and no client facts appear anywhere in it. A diagnostic checklist is not a substitute for having counsel read the actual instrument. Consult an attorney about your specific situation.