Qualified terminable interest property or QTIP is a trust set up by married couples to help lower estate taxes on a surviving spouse. The trust is set up so that the surviving spouse received an income from the trust but has no controlling interest in the assets or distribution of the trust upon their death. The estate tax is held until the surviving spouse passes away and the beneficiaries of the trust take over. In a qualified terminable interest property trust the surviving spouse cannot change the beneficiaries of the trust or alter it any manner, regardless of their change in life, such as remarriage. Remarriage does not negate the income from the QTIP and until death, the surviving spouse collects the income.