It is not uncommon for a trust to have been created for a surviving spouse under a Will or revocable trust, in order to keep the assets in that trust out of the surviving spouse’s estate for estate tax purposes, when the survivor dies. This is sometimes called a “credit shelter trust” or an “exemption trust.” If such a trust was created upon the death of the first spouse at a time when the NYS estate tax exemption was well below the current estate tax exemption (currently, almost $6 million), you may wish to consider distributing some or all of the assets held in the credit shelter trust to the surviving spouse to save on potential income taxes resulting from capital gains.