What happens to your pet if something happens to you? Without proper planning, there is a very real chance that a beloved pet will be euthanized shortly after your death. From the perspective of the court, pets are treated as property, not loving companions.
Even asking an estate-planning attorney to include a pet in an estate plan sometimes is not enough to protect that pet.
What you need to know…
In recent decades, many states have enacted “pet trust statutes.” These pet trusts relate only to animal provisions in wills. In theory, these trusts provide assets for the pet’s continued care. Unfortunately, they have some potentially dangerous drawbacks. Pet trusts written into wills…
Pet-care estate-planning tools that leave less to chance…
Freestanding pet trust—that is, a pet trust not included in your will—avoids all of the problems described above if properly constructed. These trusts are not cheap, however. An attorney is likely to charge $1,500 or so to draft the trust, and assets must be set aside to fund the trust.
Helpful: It can be difficult to find an attorney who has experience with these trusts. Ask your state bar association to recommend attorneys who specialize in animal law, then call these attorneys and confirm that they have experience drafting pet trusts.
Pet Protection Agreement (PPA), which I created, is a legally enforceable document signed by both the pet owner and a pet guardian (someone who agrees to care for the pet if the owner cannot) that ensures continuing care for your pet. PPAs can be completed without the assistance—and expense—of an attorney, using a form available from LegalZoom for $39. (Go to LegalZoom.com, then select “Pet Protection Agreement” from the “Wills & Trusts” section. Some proceeds from the sale of this form go to charity.) PPAs need not provide assets to the pet guardian for the pet’s care, though they can do so. The signed PPA should be notarized.
Whether you opt for a freestanding pet trust or a PPA, take the following steps to help ensure your pet’s safety…
Clarify who owns the pet. Your whole family might love and care for the animal, but for the purposes of estate planning, one family member should be the pet’s legal owner.
Helpful: If any adults living in the pet’s household are not named in the pet trust or PPA in any capacity, ask them to sign the trust or PPA document, too. Their signatures help confirm that they are aware of the document and that they agree that another family member is the pet’s legal owner.
If you adopted your pet, confirm with the organization from which you adopted it that you are the animal’s legal owner. Some breed-rescue organizations officially continue to own the animals that they place with families.
Example: Ellen DeGeneres felt that she had to give up her dog, Iggy, because it did not get along with her cats. DeGeneres’s hairdresser’s family loved Iggy and wanted to adopt the dog—but the breed-rescue organization from which DeGeneres had adopted the dog swept in, took Iggy away and gave him to a different family.
Include as many successor pet guardians as possible. By the time you are no longer able to care for your pet, the person who agreed to care for it in your place might have passed away…moved into a condo that doesn’t allow pets…or entered a relationship with someone who is allergic to your pet. Secure agreements from additional friends and relatives stating that they will take in the pet if your primary pet guardian cannot. List these successor pet guardians in the PPA or trust. Successor pet guardians do not need to sign the agreement, but I prefer that they do.
Include multiple ways of contacting each potential pet guardian—landline and cell-phone numbers, e-mail and mailing addresses—in case some contact information changes.
Helpful: Consider naming an appropriate animal organization to serve as a successor pet guardian should your pet guardian and successor pet guardians be unable to take in the animal. Confirm with the organization that it is willing to serve in this capacity.
Make sure that the pet trust or PPA includes all of your pets—even those you acquire after the document is completed. List and describe each of your animals in the document but also include the phrases “all my pets” and “this includes any other animals I have at the time this trust/pet protection arrangement is enacted.”
Have the trust/PPA take effect when you “are unable or unwilling to provide for the pet’s care.” These documents often are written to take effect when the pet owner is “incapacitated,” but that term is best avoided—it sometimes opens the door for a court to step in and arrange a pet guardian. The wording “unable or unwilling” keeps this decision in your hands.
Get copies of your pet trust or PPA into many hands. Give copies to all trustees, pet guardians and pet successor guardians listed in the document. Also give copies to your pet’s veterinarian, your neighbors, your family members, your dogwalker and anyone else who might be present and willing to act on your pet’s behalf when you cannot.
Ask all of these people to check in if they hear that you’ve been hospitalized (or have died) to make sure that the pet is OK. By taking these steps, you can rest assured that your pet will have a community of care that follows it as it ages.
