On a very elementary level, the owner of a CRUT draws an income off of the assets till his/her death...Cramer's loving life. On a CRUT you can draw a fixed amount or a percentage of assets till death. The specific equation depends on how the trust is established; the age of the individual would be one variable. Compounded tax-free growth (assuming you're fishing in a barrel like Cramer) is another nice feature of a CRUT. Distributions of course are taxable as ordinary income...blah blah blah talk to your accountant...
Last I read, Cramer's charitable trust was drastically underperforming the markets (as it usually does). Cramer is a terrible stock trader.....Reg FD ruined his gravy train.