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Dog in dog house

When you own a pet, every day is a celebration of your furry/feathery/fuzzy friend…except maybe when they leave a stain on the new carpet. But, today is National Love Your Pet Day, which means it’s a special reason to celebrate! So after you’re done posing with your pup on Instagram, contact an estate planner about including Spot in your estate plan! Don’t worry, you don’t need to name your bunny or bird as a beneficiary in your will to include them as a part of your family. There’s a special kind of trust just for animals—known as a pet or animal care trust.

dogs on a dog walker's leash

Top Dog Benefit: Peace of Mind

It’s easy to establish but can make a world of difference for your animal companion if something were to happen to you. Of course, we would all hope that our families or friends would adopt our pets without hesitation and given them all the love in the world. But, for many reasons, that doesn’t always happen. An animal care trust gives you peace of mind that your pet will be provided for if you were to pass away or become incapacitated in a way that prohibits you from fully being able to care sufficiently for the pet.

Animal Care Elements: Consider These Questions

There are just a few key questions you should consider with an animal care trust.

  1. If something happens to you, who do you want to have guardianship of your pet? This caregiver should be a trusted someone that can give ample care and love to your pup. It’s a good idea to name a successor caregiver just in case.
  2. Who do you want to be the trustee of the trust? The trustee is the person who distributes trust funds and ensures that the pet’s caregiver follows the owner’s instructions as set out in the trust. For instance, you could designate your mother as the trustee and your brother as the caregiver. You can name a successor trustee if the first individual is unable or unwilling.
  3. Who would you like named as the remainder beneficiary of the trust’s funds? If your pet passes before the trust is exhausted, where would you like the money to go? This is a great opportunity to name an animal care charity which would put the money toward helping more animals!
  4. What are your pet’s standard of care and daily life? What do they like to do? You’ll want to detail things like health care needs (like medicine), food preferences, and activities they love (like playing catch or running alongside a bike). If you want your pet to visit the veterinarian for check-ups every six months, this can also be written in.
  5.  What features (breed/age/color/name) identify your pet? Identifying the dog in detail can prevent a guardian from replacing the original pet as a way of illegally extend trust distributions! (Not that they would…but just in case.)
  6. Do you have a preference for the disposition of your dog? This is optional, but you could choose to specify burial under a favorite tree in the backyard, or cremation.
  7. How much money do you want to set aside in the trust? This money is what will be used to provide care for your pet. You’ll also want to specify how the money will be distributed to the caregiver of your animal. Generally, this figure can’t exceed what may reasonably be required given your pet’s standard of living.
  8. Do you want to compensate the caregiver? If you wish, you can compensate the caregiver in their role. Generally, a small monthly or annual stipend is acceptable.

Note that a good estate planner will include “all present and future pets” in the pet trust with some specific verbiage. This is a bit of estate planning insurance, just in case you don’t have the chance to update your pet trust if you add a new animal to your family in the future.

Why Not Just a Will?

One questions I’ve received from pet parents in the past is: why can’t I just include my cat in my will? They have a point and they’re on the right track. Pets are considered personal property, so you can include them in your will with language such as, “My daughter will inherit my house and my hedgehog, Sonic.”

However, a will is a document that facilitates transfers of assets—it doesn’t enforce demands tied to the property. Instructions in a will are unenforceable, there is nothing to stop the pet caregiver to ignoring instructions in a will completely. But, in an animal care trust, you can hone in on specific habits and behaviors such as: Rover eats X certain kind of dog food and should be taken to a dog park at least once a week. If the caregiver didn’t feed Spot a certain kind of dog food or take him to the dog park, the trustee could get the caregiver’s status revoked and the pet would transfer to the successor guardian.

Close up of dog licking camera

Unlike a specific trust, a will doesn’t address the possibility that your pet may need to be cared for by a guardian if you become incapacitated. Additionally, wills go through the probate process and the property transfer is not immediate. Where will the pet reside during this process? If litigation over the estate occurs who is caring for the pet.

Unlike a testamentary trust for children in a will, the document doesn’t allow don’t allow for disbursement of funds over a pet’s lifetime. If you bequest funds to your intended animal guardian it would be distributed all at once and there’s nothing to stop that individual from using the money on themselves and selling your pet.

In terms of opportunity for fund disbursement, specific instructions, and a clear cut contingency plan if your initial named guardian or trustee doesn’t work out, the animal care trust is a superior estate planning tool for your pet.

That all being said, you DEFINITELY need a will as a part of your estate plan. It just that a separate animal care trust will best compliment the other estate planning documents for this particular and important part of your life.

Tail Wagging Trust

Share this infographic with fellow pet lovers, and let’s discuss how to structure your personalized animal care trust. Contact me via email or phone (515-371-6077) to get started!

scary jack-o-lantern

It’s the season for everything pumpkin, Hocus Pocus reruns, and “accidentally” eating all the trick-or-treat candy before the actual trick-or-treaters arrive. It’s the time when I’m reminded that the scariest notion of all is not Dracula, ghosts, or even the overpriced costumes, but rather the downright terrifying reality that nearly every six out of 10 Americans do not have estate planning documents in place. Yikes. Despite the numerous benefits, advantages, and financial savings that comes with a proper estate plan, it’s all too common to push the process off. It’s like the equivalent of the dusty, cobwebby attic of your to-do list. Here are five scary excuses I’ve heard as to why people procrastinate creating an estate plan:

I’ll be dead, so I won’t be around to care.

Downright hair-raising!

A friend’s mother said this when my friend brought up estate planning. The mother has a point…I guess. Yes, after she dies she won’t be able to “care” about where her assets go. However, most of us would like to have a set plan of where our hard-earned money and personal property will go and to whom. Why? Because we care while we’re living and like to think we’re taking care of the ones we love even after we’re gone. So, why wouldn’t she (even as an act of love) take a simple measure to save her loved ones money (and time) instead of dealing with the sluggish probate process that would occur if she were to die intestate (without a will)?

graveyard with gravestones

I don’t own enough assets to need an estate plan.

I hear this one all the time and it’s terrifying to think someone would sacrifice their right to pass along their estate (as small or as big as it may be) as they choose. The fact is that having a (small) bank account, minor children, owning a home (of any size), or even having a pet is enough to necessitate estate planning…if even just to be prepared. Of course, the larger and more complex the estate, the more tools and documents may be needed, but that’s why you need to have an experienced estate planner to help determine the tools you need.

I don’t have time right now to do estate planning.

Unnerving and chilling. Sure, estate planning doesn’t sound like the most fun thing to deal with on top of everything else you have going on in your life. But, the time it takes to create an estate plan will be significantly less than the time it will cost your family if your estate goes through probate. Additionally, most (good) estate planning attorneys will work around YOUR schedule. They are willing to make house calls and conduct conversations essential to crafting your individualized estate plan over the phone or email—whatever works best for you.

It’s too expensive to make an estate plan. 

Eerily wrong. It will almost certainly be more expensive for your family and loved ones if you die intestate (without a will). It will not only cost them monetarily, but also emotionally as the process can be shockingly slow, tedious, and can create unnecessary conflict. Part of living is loving, so show your family, children, friends, and favorite charities the love by taking the time to craft a quality estate plan.

I don’t even know where to start, so I’m not going to.

Getting started on your estate plan is actually incredibly easy, so continuing to make this excuse is alarmingly unnerving! Use my free (without obligation) Estate Plan Questionnaire. It’s an excellent tool for organizing all the essential information you (and your spouse, if applicable) and your estate planner need to have on hand in order to reach your estate planning goals.


Do any of these sound like you? Fear is for werewolves and zombies, not estate planning! Break the procrastination cycle and contact me via email or phone to discuss your situation.

Estate planning is not just for your grandma, rich people, or families with kids. Call it adulting or simply being prepared, creating a quality estate plan is an essential part of your financial health. Here are five valid reasons for single, twenty-somethings to make an estate plan ASAP.

  1. The future of your digital assets (e.g., bank or credit union account information, social media accounts, and more) are in limbo. So much of our lives are lived online that it’s just as important to have your online presence accounted for as your personal, physical property.
  1. Your debt still needs to be handled. Unless it’s student loans, your debt just doesn’t go away if you pass away, and someone in your family may well be responsible for paying it off.
  2. Without an estate, your assets will be liquefied to pay off debt, and then reassigned to whomever a probate court deems to be the best recipient. This also means that without an estate plan you cannot donate your assets to the charities you care most about.

4. Do you really want to leave all of the burial decisions and house cleaning to your distraught loved ones?

5. Who’s going to parent your fur baby (dog, cat, bunny, chinchilla, you name it) if something happens to you? You’ll want your pet to go to a loving home and an estate plan (with a pet trust) is a great (only?) way to set the standard for continued care and ownership.

These are just a few of the many considerations that are, yes, tough to think about, but so important.

Have questions? Need more information?

A great place to get started is with my Estate Plan Questionnaire. Also, I’m always here to offer guidance, explain important terms, and answer questions. Feel free to reach out at any time.