Should wife and I who are US green card holders with foreign citizenship, setup a Living Revocable Trust if 2 LLCs that I am principal member of own 2 apartments in US?

[taxreturnfiler]

What are the tax impacts if the trust becomes the owner/member of the NY and NJ LLCs that own the two apartments in NY and NJ that I rent out and live in respectively? I believe probate would be avoided, but would there be a tax on transfer in NY or NJ, or a federal tax? What about any capital gains tax impacts on whether I sold the apartments in the future? We've been working in US for a few years and have 401k, IRA, 529, and some brokerage account equity investments as well, and wondered whether setting up an A/B living revocable trust might be helpful to my spouse if I were to pass away? I believe Trust A with surviving spouse/grantor’s assets (and other deceased grantor’s assets via any specific bequest) may be amended/revoked by surviving spouse. Trust B with deceased spouse/grantor’s assets may not be amended (credit shelter trust), which I believe is the mechanism for stating that I would be happy for the executor to not get court approval or supervision (probate). Surviving spouse will retain a life estate in property in Trust B (i.e. survivor is entitled to any income the assets produce, and in the case of real estate, to its use). But are there other tax impacts?

I believe Trust B can be further split into Trust B (Bypass Trust) equal to NJ (or NY? But I am resident of NJ) Estate Tax Exemption and irrevocable Trust C (Marital Trust) and trustee would request the deceased grantor’s Executor to make election to qualify Trust C as a “Qualified Terminable Interest Property” election (QTIP) under IRS code. What would be the rationale for this and what would be the tax impacts?

I believe green card holders have the same federal estate tax exemptions as US citizens ($11.58M), but green card holders are not given the unlimited marital deduction that allows the unlimited transfer of assets from one spouse to another upon the death of one. Is this correct and what does this mean? Does this mean a trust for us is not advisable, and for the moment we should maybe just sign a Last Will and Testament that mentions possibility of surviving spouse setting up a testamentary trust for spouse and child beneficiaries? This would be subject to probate, I believe, but would it be preferable to setting up a living trust unless we get US citizenship in a few years?

[pk]

@taxreturnfiler , whereas this is wrong forum for this kind of query(ies), I would suggest the following:

(a) US Probate laws / Estate Laws/ Trust Laws do not distinguish  between  different types of residents of the state  -- these  are under state laws ( and not federal except for federal gift/estate tax ).   Thus as long you are a  legal resident of a state all local laws apply equally  even if you are not a citizen.

(b) Not knowing your country of citizenship, I cannot comment on whether  your home country could have any claims/jurisdictions over your estate.  Generally all the tax treaties that I am aware of   do not cover this area.  However if you also have assets ( houses/bienes/ etc. ) in another country ( country of your citizenship ) generally the process of affecting an estate / probate  is  complicated -- in such a case it is  more prudent to have  a separate testamentary document in that country  and not connect this with US documents ( even though it may be violating  the wording of the one in this country).

(c) It is best to discuss  this and similar  items with a probate lawyer  before  one proceeds  with any action.

Hope this helps you

pk