Pet Trusts - A Summary
If your client has pets, you may suggest they include pet trust provisions in their living trust to provide for the care of their pets who survive them.
If a client creates a pet trust, they can allocate a sum of money to the trustee of the pet trust to be used for the benefit of the pet. You can advise the client that the amount of money allocated to the pet trust be calculated based on the pet's annual care, maintenance, and support, multiplied by the number of years that the pet may be expected to live.
The client can designate someone they trust to serve as the trustee of the pet trust and manage the funds allocated to the pet trust. The trustee will make appropriate distributions to the "caretaker" of the pet. The caretaker of the pet will be the person who lives with and cares for the pet. Alternate trustees and caretakers may be designated in case the first-choice trustees and caretakers cannot serve.
Some clients prefer to have the trustee and the caretaker be different persons. Then, the trustee and the caretaker can discuss the appropriate amount of distributions needed for the care of the pet.
The pet trust should specify who should be the remainder beneficiaries if the pet passes away and there are funds remaining in the pet trust. For even more information about pet trusts, check out the free trust primer offered by ASPCA at: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/pet-planning/pet-trust-primer.
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