What Will Happen to Your Pets When You Are Gone?

by Michael Blacksburg

We treat our pooches as members of our families, and cities around the country are elevating the status of pets from “property” to living beings with certain rights. San Francisco has replaced the word “owner” with “guardian” in its statutes dealing with pets. Yet we rarely consider providing for them in our estate plans.

When I ask my clients who would care for their dogs or cats if something should happen to them, they tell me that anyone they know would jump at the chance to care for them. “Bowser is the coolest! Everyone wants him.” The reality, however, is that an estimated 500,000 pets are euthanized each year by shelters and veterinarians when their owners predecease them.

Those who once promised to care for your dogs in case of an emergency might not be willing or able to do so when the time comes. Circumstances change. A playful two-year-old pup becomes a ten-year-old with serious hip problems, or people simply move away.

With proper planning, you can design a care plan not only in the event of your death but also in case you become temporarily or permanently disabled. Your care plan can be informal, requesting that friends or family step in to help, or can be formal with legal documents that ensure a caregiver’s legal obligations, provide funds for your dogs’ care, and list the names of contingency caregivers.

The best way to make sure your wishes are fulfilled is by making formal arrangements that specifically cover the care of you’re animals. An estate planner can advise you on the type of estate documents most suitable for your needs. An effective care plan should include a will, trust, or other document, like a limited power of attorney, to provide for temporary care and/or permanent ownership, as well as the money necessary to care for them.

What legal documents do you need?

Your emergency planning documents should give your chosen caregivers the legal right to care for you’re animals and should provide access to the funds needed to do so. At minimum, you can accomplish this with a limited power of attorney over your pet’s care and access to a particular savings account. This power ends when you die, and a will or living trust is needed to continue the caregiver’s right to care for your animals and receive funds after your death.

Wills have certain drawbacks when it comes to directing your animals’ care. A will only takes effect at your death, and it might take a long time for instructions regarding long-term care to be carried out. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include a provision in your will for your cats, but you should consider creating additional documents, such as a pet trust, that address more immediate care of your animals. California’s legislature enacted a law permitting the creation of a pet trust.

Your pet’s trust

A pet trust may be created under a will or as part of a revocable living trust. Unlike a will, a pet trust can be enacted immediately (if it’s part of a revocable living trust). A pet trust is a legal document you create to ensure your pets will be cared for in the same way you cared for them.

With a pet trust you appoint a caregiver to provide care for your pets. You also appoint a trustee to manage the money (and sometimes real property) and ensure the caregiver is providing the level of care you established. California allows the trustee and the caregiver to be the same person but depending upon the amount of funds in the pet trust it might be prudent to ensure the trustee and caregiver are not the same person.

In the pet trust you provide explicit directions necessary for the short-term and long-term care of your dogs including instructions relating to euthanasia and burial. You also decide whether the caregiver and trustee should be paid for their services and what that amount should be. And you specify who should receive remaining funds in the trust upon the death of the last of your animals (the remainder beneficiary).

Who does Maxie like the best?

Regardless of your choice to create an informal or formal care plan for your animals’ lives you should arrange for at least two people to agree to be temporary caregivers in case of an emergency.

When considering whom to ask, start with people who have met and loved your dogs or been good caretakers for their own dogs. Remember, these caregivers will have full discretion over care of your beloved animals so choose people you trust to act in their best interests.

Provide these people with keys to your home, care and feeding instructions, general medical information, and more in-depth instructions for what to do if you’re permanently incapacitated. Include copies of your pets’ veterinary records and information about their temperament, dietary needs, and any other details that would help keep disruption of your pet’s life to a minimum.

I recommend you leave these instructions on your refrigerator door or behind the front entrance to your home. You can update these written instructions as necessary without formal changes to legal documents, and your caregivers will know that they have up-to-date care instructions.

I provide my clients with a “Pet Alert Card” that lists the names and phone numbers of their pets’ caregivers in case of emergency. If a client is ever involved in an accident or suddenly taken ill, the Pet Alert Card ensures that prompt attention is given to you’re animals. Neighbors or dog walkers make excellent emergency caregivers for short-term care. Remember to ask their permission before putting their name on a Pet Alert Card or any other kind of emergency wallet card.

It would be great if the person you designate to take care of your dogs during an emergency would be able to care for them permanently. It’s not always possible, however, for one person (or family) to take care of a number of animals forever. If you cannot find any caregivers, or the people who once promised to be caregivers are not able to take on the responsibility, direct your executor or successor trustee to place your pets with a “suitable family” or a pet sanctuary.

It may seem frivolous to some, but to people like me and my clients who love their animal companions, making sure our dogs, cats, or other pets are taken care of, if something happens to us, is of the utmost importance. If you have no plan, formal or informal, then you are leaving the future care of your pets to chance. Even informal planning can protect your pets from the anxiety of waiting days before someone comes to feed and care for them. A properly drafted pet trust can appoint a caregiver and money manager, and provide funds and explicit instructions for your pets’ care. Including your pets in your estate planning provides peace of mind for you and security for them after you’re gone, so don’t delay getting your documents in order. Then you can forget about worst case scenarios and just keep enjoying life with your animal companions!