QDOT and Living Trust

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Hi!

I really need some help with this.

My wife is a resident alien with a green card. I am trying to determine if I need to setup a QDOT for her. I have heard and read different amounts that she can inherit without paying estate taxes. I've heard that it is anywhere from $100k to $1.5mil. Does anyone know where I can get up to date information about this without going to an estate lawyer?

Some further information is that we are both retired and the total NW is 1.3mil including the house. Most of that money is in my IRA. The house is worth about $550k.

I have also heard that I can gift her up to $100k per year without any problems, is this true?

We are planing on moving in the next year or two and should I put the new house entirely in her name to reduce the size of the estate that she would inherit?

I have brought up the subject that we need a living trust with a QDOT provision but she is against it saying that we don't need one. She has heard some stories from people that she knows about the problems that they have had problems with their trusts. She could not explain what type of trust they had so I take the problems with a grain of salt.

I need help with information to present to her to try and change her mind and to relieve my concerns that when I pass she will have to pay a lot of estate taxes.

She says that she is going to apply to become a citizen but that can take years and years. I need some sort of work around in the mean time.

Thanks
Larry