When planning for married couples are joint trusts more advantageous or are separate trusts the way to go? Many married couples have their assets so intertwined that separate individual trusts might not be the best estate planning tool for them. However, joint trusts often don’t provide the same level of flexibility as separate trusts. A Survivor’s Trust, on the other hand, provides the surviving spouse with the same kind of versatility at first death that he or she would have had if the couple had used separate trusts at the outset.