Caring for Your Pets After You’re Gone
Explore the crucial aspect of estate planning that often goes overlooked: providing for your pets after you're gone. This blog discusses how standard wills and estate documents can be adapted to include care for your pets, from naming emergency and permanent caregivers to setting up a trust for their needs. Whether you have a high-energy dog, a dietary-specific cat, or even a long-lived Galapagos tortoise, learn how to ensure your beloved animals are well cared for in your absence with legally enforceable arrangements that go beyond mere asset allocation.
Most standard wills and other estate documents specify who will inherit the assets, and if there are minor children, who will be the designated legal guardian until they reach adulthood. But what about your pets? How can you provide for them if you were to suffer an untimely death?
Your documents should include your cat, dog, horse, fish or other pet, naming both emergency and permanent caregivers. In addition, you can write out your pet’s needs, and if you have multiple pets, whether they should stay together or be placed with different caregivers. The permanent caregiver should be someone you know who will provide a good home and give the pet(s) the kind of care and attention they’re accustomed to.
Your will cannot leave money directly to a pet; most states still class pets as property. But it can provide for the expenses required for pet care in a trust, which will receive funds that you specify in your will. The will can also include authorization for the use of funds from your estate to, for example, transport the pet(s) to their new home.
A pet trust provides a legally-enforceable arrangement that not only funds the pets’ care, but also stipulates how the pet is to be cared for. A high energy dog might need a certain amount of exercise each day. A cat might prefer (or need) a certain diet. Horses obviously require more hands-on maintenance.
Will your pet outlive you? In many cases, no. But some pets have human-like lifespans, which makes this a more urgent issue. A certified wildlife rehabilitation in New York has a trust in place for her African Gray Parrot, a species which can live for more than 50 years in captivity. If you happen to have a Galapagos tortoise in your care, roaming the back yard, then consider that they can live up to 177 years in a domestic setting, and decide now which of your great-great-grandchildren should be responsible for its care.
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