Grantor Trust Answer Book, 2014

A grantor trust is a trust in which the settlor retains control over the trust property or its income to such an extent that the settlor is taxed on the trust's income. The use of grantor trust arrangements has become an important estate planning tool. Owners of grantor trusts may be shareholders of S corporations. A number of desirable and sophisticated estate planning arrangements involve grantor trust status as the starting point. These include grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), grantor retained unitrusts (GRUTs), personal residence trusts (PRTs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs) and intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs).