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This article focuses on the advantages of administration of death benefits under qualified pension and profit sharing plans in the U.S. Receipt and administration of employee benefits under qualified pension and profit sharing plans are treated more favorably under the various federal tax laws. This tax treatment inheres in available opportunities. For instance, distributions may qualify for capital gains treatment if such distributions are paid within one-taxable year to the payee by reason of death or separation from service. The benefit under a qualified plan may also be exempted from estate tax if payable to a beneficiary other than the estate of the employee, except to the extent that it is attributable to contributions by the employee.

This article presents and outlines a few aspects of commonplace and wide application of the marital deduction provisions in the U.S. revenue Act of 1948, in affording a method of simulating the estate tax treatment of estates held in community. It is not the purpose of this article, however, to catalogue the many respects in which the requirements for or use of life insurance may have been affected by the estate tax provisions. Every program directed to obtaining a marital deduction is necessarily predicate upon the survivorship of the spouse. If the wife is insurable, insurance on her life may be indicated. Depending upon the circumstances, such insurance should be owned by the husband or the children.