People and their pets are usually inseparable until they absolutely have to be separated. Disaster, disease, disability, and death don’t just impact your human family, they impact your pet family as well.
Including pet trust provisions in your will, your revocable living trust, or a separate trust is the best way to be sure your pets are taken care of when you no longer can do it yourself. Such trusts are not hard to create or administrate. There are, however, several questions to consider.
What Pets Might You Own When You Can No Longer Care For Them?
Sure, you love Fifi now, but she is thirteen and you are thirty-five. She’s not likely to be around in five years for the pet trust you sign tomorrow. How can you add to or subtract from whatever menagerie you may own from today to your last tomorrow?
Some people recommend you chip your pet and refer to the pet in your pet trust by its chip number. There are a few problems with this. First, you have to chip every pet you may take in, which is usually a good idea in case your pet gets longs, but it requires time and money, any it’s not always feasible.
The best way to describe your pet beneficiary it is to create a pet trust and refer to it and include it and any future pets you may own by reference in a Pet Memorandum you attach to the trust and any subsequent Pet Memoranda that may be attached to your pet trust at the time it becomes effective by your disability or death.
How Much Money Should You Put Into Your Pet Trust And When?
How much money to commit to your pet’s or pets’ care and when you fund your pet trust depends on the facts and circumstances of your finances and pets at the time you create your pet trust and how you expect things to change between now and when your pets need someone else to care for them. You have to consider many things, including, but not limited to:
- Do you have a teacup chihuahua or a Great Dane; a new kitten or an ocelot, like my wife’s cousin used to have; a parakeet with five years left in it or a large parrot with 95 years in it?
- How much food, shelter, home care, and veterinary care will your pets need for the rest of their lifespan?
- How much are your pet expenses expected to increase as time marches on?
- How enjoyable are your pets to live with?
- How do you want your pet handled after it dies; burial or cremation; and do you want the ashes preserved or cast upon your each animal’s favorite play park?
If you can fund your trust using an interest bearing trust checking account, then that’s usually the best way to do it. That way, any money that is needed to get your pet set up in her next accommodations is immediately available as the need arises.
Who Should You Appoint To Be Your Successor Pet Caregiver?
Sure, your best friend loves your Lhasa Apso when she’s your dog; but, maybe, she’s just being polite. Creating a pet trust does not just require legal planning, it requires logistical planning.
So, sit down and have “The Conversation” with whoever you are thinking of burdening with dear Dahla’s (Tibetan for Moon Goddess) care — and feeding — and dying — and burying. For some people, choosing a pet guardian is almost as stressful as picking a child’s guardian; sometimes even more so.
Should You Pay Your Pet’s Successor “Person”?
You love being your pet’s “person.” Your successor may agree to serve you as your pet’s successor person more out of duty to you than desire for living with and loving on your pet. If Dahla is not going to be her own best reward, then may a dollar or two per day would be a nice way to remember your pet’s guardian so she will continue to fondly remember you?
Who Should You Appoint To Be Your Successor Pet Trust Trustee?
Sometimes you love the person taking over your pet some much and trust them so much you would have no problem whatsoever letting them be both the guardian and trustee of your pet trust. But, can you really be sure. Half of most marriages end in divorce within seven years, so the saying goes. What’s to keep your dual-purpose person-trustee from keeping all your money and turfing all your pets to the nearest shelter?
Letting the trustee or, better yet, your trust protector or trust attorney manage the money with annual estimated stipend advances from your pet trust’s principal and extra amounts as needed is usually a good idea.
There is much more to read on pet trusts. The ASPCA has a good Pet Trust Primer. They also have a state-by-state survey of pet trust laws. For a really deep dive, Rachel Hirschfield, an attorney who is often called America’s expert on pet trusts wrote a really good law review article on pet trusts.
Here is an example of what LegalZoom’s Pet Protection Agreement looks like, which you can buy for $39.
Rachel Hirschfield sells her own Pet Protection Agreement for $25. It’s marked as copyrighted, trademarked, patent pending and does not appear to be available to view online without buying one for $25. Therefore, we cannot post a link to it, but you can read all Rachel has to say about it on her pet trust website.
If you ever need a pet trust, your LifeCycle Lawyer will give you one for free as part of your $30 monthly retainer. And we will do the same for any of your two-legged friends you send our way. Call us at 410-LCL-FIRM 410-525-3476 to find out more.