After Your Death, Who Takes Care of Your Dog? (10:03)
A pet trust designates a new guardian for companion animals and sets aside funds for their care.
Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses pet planning as part of your estate plan with Rebecca Bell of RB Legal, LLC .
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
This morning on BRN, after your death, who takes care of your dog? Joining me now to help break it all down, Rebecca Bell joins us from RB Legal. Rebecca, great to see you.
Thanks for joining us on the program this morning.
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here and talk about pets.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and as we’re talking, down to my left, or the audience’s right, is one of my cats, Posy. She’s a seven-month-old kitten. And what I’m taken by in terms of this topic is, I guess I’ll start with a basic question.
What happens to our pets when we pass away?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
Well, I think that’s something that’s important to figure out ahead of time. So pets are considered property, like a book, like a lamp. It may be a living, breathing creature that has emotions and a personal connection to you.
But according to the law, it’s simply personal property. Dog, cat, horse, fish, you name it.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So if I… I’m sorry, go ahead, finish your thought.
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
So you asked what happens. Well, it depends on what happens to the rest of your stuff. Is your pet valued by the people that are administering your estate?
Is your pet a burden, something no one wants? And so we see a lot of different results, good and bad.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
We’ll talk about the Pet Trust in a minute, but let’s talk about the regular estate plan and will. Does that account for what my wishes may be for Posey and our other cat, Sebastian, and for my wife and I? Does that account into what we’re talking about this morning, or is that more property-centric and not pet-centric?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
A standard will or trust, whatever estate planning document manages your assets, will only take care of them as an asset, will only take care of the pet as personal property.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And that’s why the whole Pet Trust issue came about and became really important across the U.S. So if I love my pets, or say someone has a horse or they have fish, and they want to bequeath those pets onto somebody else, but they want to have some level of standard of care, is that where the Pet Trust comes in?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
Yes, that’s exactly right. It’s a standard of care. It’s a continuity of care.
It provides safety. And if I’m too far in the weeds, I’ll back up. But let’s say you have a short-term disability.
You need a hip replaced. You need to have surgery, then you need to be in a rehab center. Who is taking care of Posey and Sargent while you’re gone?
And coming back, right? You’ll be back home in six weeks, whatever it takes, and then everything’s back to normal. Now, let’s say scenario number two, you end up in a memory care situation long-term.
Does someone bring your pets to visit you? What happens to them long-term? And those are the things that a Pet Trust can breach so there’s no care gaps.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And I couldn’t imagine being separated. I love my wife, and I love her immensely. I couldn’t imagine being separated from her, but I also couldn’t imagine being separated from the cats because they’re like my care animals.
They’re with me all day long. How do I go about setting up this Pet Trust? Is it difficult to do?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
It really isn’t. That’s I think the part that surprises people. And so a Pet Trust can be as simple or as complicated as your wishes are, but it can be done as a standalone plan or it can be done along with or in conjunction with creating your entire estate plan or updating a current estate plan.
And the nice thing is it covers the pets you have today and the future posies or whatever pet you end up with down the road. So what you have today doesn’t have to be redone.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And what if posy, and this is true in Sebastian, they have prescription food? We go to Chewy, we spend a lot of money on Chewy because they have certain ailments that they need to have taken care of. In that trust, do I have to put down that Sebastian needs Royal Canine Urinary SO and posy needs X, Y, and Z?
And do I need to allocate payment as part of the estate towards covering some of those expenses?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
Absolutely. So I have a dog, a rescue dog, multiple time rescue who has anxiety and she is on the doggy version of Prozac, anti-anxiety. I would definitely, I mean, her life and anyone’s life who lives with her is less, the quality reduces if she’s not on her meds.
And so it’s critical to me that whoever would take her on also provides those medicines. We use a natural dog food too, that’s just us, but yes. And so there’s different ways you can do this.
You can say, I’m going to leave my pet, I’m going to leave Fido and I’m going to leave $10,000 to my niece who’s going to take care of Fido. That’s one type of way to take care of your pets. The problem is if that’s done without a pet trust that has specific protections in it, Fido could be at the Humane Society the next day and she’s got a $10,000 European vacation.
So a trust provides a framework that puts some checks and balances and protections.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Go ahead. I’m sorry, go ahead.
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
Well, I was going to say, so we talk to our clients about things like what is a typical day in the life of your pet? Does it have an orthopedic bed? Does it have medications?
Do you have a dog walker? Does it go to doggie daycare? Does it have a special food plan?
Does it have this? Can you leave it alone? When you leave it alone, do you have the TV on?
Do you have the radio on? I will tell you in all of my years of estate planning, no one has ever gone into that much detail for their children.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
But they bet you they have for their pet?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
Absolutely. 100%.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. I mean, it’s funny, but it’s not funny. I guess last question for you, Rebecca, how long does it take to set up a pet trust and can I amend it like I would any other state planning document, my will, my advanced directive, all the other things that I would need over time?
So let’s say that Posey no longer needs urinary food from Kayden. That’s, by the way, very expensive. It’s like $130 a month.
So can you amend these documents over time? And does it take a long time to set them up?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
So first question, how long does it take to set up? It probably is a 50-50 split between how busy the attorney is that’s doing the drafting and how well you communicate with them as a client on what your needs are and who you’re choosing to take care of the animal. Cost-wise, that can range depending on the attorney as well.
And then finally, can it be amended? Absolutely, in a heartbeat. You would amend it like any other estate planning document.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So as your life changes and you have children or you get new pets or you have new wishes for nieces, nephews, and others, you can make changes over time?
Rebecca Bell, RB Legal, LLC
Absolutely.
Jeffrey H. Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
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Until then, I’m Jeff Snider. Stay safe, keep on saving, and don’t forget, roll with the changes.