Aunt Betty’s Pet Trust

My Aunt Betty’s closest companions have always been her cats. Since I was a child, my family has never traveled to the Midwest just to visit Betty. It was always Betty and Roscoe or Betty and Fluffy. She has always loved those feline friends, and as age crept closer, she began to speculate what would become of them after her eventual demise.

Betty apparently thought this worried me too because over the weekend I got a phone call to say that it was all settled: a pet trust had just been signed.

Tobacco heiress Doris Duke was one of the first to set up such a trust when she left $100,000 to Rodeo, her Shar-Pei. Others followed, but the courts often disapproved of its validity because the trust was not based on a human life.

This changed in 1993 when several states began to adopt model legislation drafted by the Uniform Probate Code, which allowed trusts to continue for the life of a pet. Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin allow some type of pet trust.

You can have the trust go into effect any time you are unable to care for your pets, usually in the event of death or disability. Like other trusts, you finance the instrument with enough assets to care for your pets over their expected useful lives. As a general rule, the amount should not be “excessive.” A trustee is appointed to oversee and distribute the assets. A caretaker is also designated to take possession of and physically care for your pets.

If you don’t know of a trustee or keeper, check with your local humane society or other animal organization in your area. Many of these organizations have programs in place to help with this issue.

Pet Trusts do not come without some concerns.

It is important to understand that while pet trusts can be established, leaving ownership to an animal through a will is not yet recognized.

If a pet is very young, you may also run into the “rule against perpetuities,” which prohibits a trust from lasting forever. This shouldn’t be a problem with a 13 year old dog, but what if you die with a 3 year old tortoise? Recently, a tortoise in India died which was estimated to be 255 years old. Adwaitya (the name of the turtle) could have wreaked legal havoc with a trust.

Aunt Betty is lucky to live in a state that allows trusts, but even if she doesn’t, there are some possible alternative plans. Leaving her pet (and the money to take care of it) to someone willing to love Fluffy is one of them.

As with any type of estate planning, a competent attorney who has some experience in this area should be used.

If it’s important to you that Fido continues on the gravy train even after he’s ridden on his last train, then a Pet Trust is something to consider.

Now if I could just learn to meow and lick myself clean, maybe Betty would set up a trust for me.