A Trust For Your Pet?

     Have you ever wondered what might happen to your pets if you are not around to take care of them?  The sad fact is that perhaps as many as 500,000 pets are euthanized each year when the owner’s of the pets predecease them. 

     Do you have any “best friends” in the animal kingdom who rely upon you for their care? What would happen to them tomorrow if you passed on today? Have you made any arrangements for their care in your wealth transfer planning?

     If you are in the majority in this country then you have made no wealth transfer plan, not even a simple will, so you also have made no written and enforceable provisions for your pets. If you are in the minority and you do have written wealth transfer plans, then it also quite likely that you do not have specifically enforceable provisions for your pets.

     Nebraska is one of about 30 states that have passed laws which allow the formation of “Pet Trusts.” A Pet Trust can be created as part of a will or revocable living trust within your wealth transfer plan.  Basically, the pet trust has four roles that are defined within its terms: the trustee, the care provider, your pet(s) beneficiary, and the ultimate beneficiaries. The other essential requirement for the Pet Trust to work properly is for adequate funds to be placed in the trust to provide care for your pets over their lifetimes.

     The trustee is the person or entity which is responsible for handling the funds and enforcing the terms of the trust. The care provider is, obviously, the person or entity who is actually providing the care for your pets. Although the trustee and care provider can be the same person or entity, it may be wise to have them be different.

     Checks and balances are not a bad thing when dealing with pets who cannot speak for themselves. There have been cases where pets have died and the trust should have ended, however, those caring for the pets wanted their compensation to continue so they simply purchased look-alike pets and continued to spend the money on themselves and the pet or worse yet no pets were purchased, but they continued to withdraw money as though nothing had happened.

     The pet(s) beneficiary you are going to set the Pet Trust up for are usually going to be the ones that you have at the time you establish the trust. However, you should make the trust flexible enough to cover whatever pets you may own when you die, because usually the life expectation of a pet is much shorter than our life expectancy, but you may have just added a young pet to your home shortly before you pass away.

     The ultimate beneficiary is the person or entity that receives the assets, if any, that are left after the last pet beneficiary has died. This will often be the same beneficiaries as you have left your other property to, but it can be any person or entity that you choose.

     Finally, the last consideration for the Pet Trust is how much funding is necessary to fund to provide for your pet for his or her lifetime. This can be a bit tricky to come up with an exact number and trying to balance between the future needs for pets and not allowing too much that could be used by your ultimate beneficiaries.

     If you have a beloved pet, you know they are almost like a child to you. However, unlike your children, who are supposed to become independent, your pets cannot ever stop depending on you. Call an experienced wealth transfer attorney today to talk about creating or revising your plan to include the care of those always dependent family members by adding a Pet Trust.

Omaha Estate Planning Attorneys Stephen Schmidt and Rodney Halstead serve clients in Omaha, Nebraska as well as the surrounding cities of Fremont, Millard, Gretna, Elkhorn, LaVista (La Vista), Bellevue, Papillion and Ralston. Please feel free to contact the office if you or a family member is in need legal assistance with Nebraska Probate and Estates, Nebraska Estate Planning and Asset Protection, Nebraska Elder Law, Nebraska Trust Planning, Nebraska Tax Planning, Nebraska Medicaid Planning, Nebraska Wealth Transfer Planning, Nebraska Business Succession and Planning or Nebraska Fiduciary Services.

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