protect – Experience a Richer Way to Wealth

If you’re a pet owner, you know the special bond that exists between you and your pets, and to many pet owners, our furry friends aren’t just a pet – they’re a loved and important part of our families. So if you’re thinking about how best to provide for your family after you die or if you become incapacitated, it makes sense for your beloved pet to be a part of the plan.

You want your pet to continue to have the kind of love and care you provided during your life, but estate planning for furry friends requires a little more thought than you might expect.

To understand why, it’s important to know two things:

A pet is considered property under the law.
When someone receives a gift of property through a will, that person can do whatever they want with that property, including your pet.

A Will Won’t Cut It

While you see them as part of the family, under the law, a pet is considered personal property, just like your money, furniture, and clothes. Because of this, you can’t actually leave money or possessions to your pet directly through your will or trust. Even if you try to leave money directly to your pet in your will, the money will instead skip your pet and pass to the beneficiaries you named to receive the remainder of your possessions. Or, if you didn’t name anyone else, the court will give your possessions, including your pet, to your next of kin, as determined under the law.

Worst of all, the person that receives your pet and money for its care through your will has no legal obligation to use that money for your pet’s care or to even keep your pet at all. That’s why it’s so critically important to work with an estate planning attorney who knows the proper way to plan for your pet, so that when you die or if you become incapacitated, your beloved companion won’t end up in an animal shelter or given away to anyone you wouldn’t want raising your beloved familiar.

A Will Provides No Guarantees For Their Future

Because you can’t leave money to your pet directly, your first thought might be to leave your pet and money for its care to someone you trust through your will instead. While this is an option, it’s not guaranteed to work.

That’s because the person you name as the beneficiary of your pet in your will has no legal obligation to use the funds you leave for your pet’s care for that purpose. Even if you leave detailed instructions for your pet’s care, there is no law holding the beneficiary to accept the responsibility of caring for your pet or stopping them from changing their mind in the future after the court probate process is finished.

You might be thinking that the person you’d leave your pet to loves them and would never think of abandoning them. But even if this person is committed to caring for your pet, it’s simply impossible to predict what circumstances might occur in the future that could make it impossible for them to provide for your pet for your pet’s full lifetime.

For example, when you die, the new caregiver might:

Live in an apartment or condo that doesn’t allow pets
Suffer from an unforeseen illness that makes it difficult to care for your pet
Have an allergy to your pet you knew nothing about
Become so busy with work or family that they just don’t have the time to make a lifelong commitment to your pet’s care

A Will Isn’t Fast Enough

The other issue a will creates for your pet is that a will is required by law to go through the court process known as probate before any of your property can be distributed to the people you’ve named, and of course, it only operates in the event of your death, not your incapacity.

The probate process itself can take months or even years to complete. During that time, your pet could be passed around between family members and friends, who may even argue over who should care for it. In the worst-case scenario, no one may even think to check in on your pet regularly while the court process is unfolding.

Plus, a will only goes into effect upon your death, so if you’re incapacitated by accident or illness, it would do nothing to protect your companion. This leaves your pet in limbo and vulnerable to being re-homed to someone you wouldn’t have chosen or wanted to care for your pet. In the worst scenario, your pet could be surrendered to a shelter by the time everything gets figured out.

Provide Long-Lasting Care for Your Pet Through a Pet Trust

In order to be completely confident that your pet is properly taken care of and that the money you leave for its care is used exactly as intended, ask us to help you create a pet trust.

By creating a pet trust, you can lay out detailed, legally binding rules for how your pet’s chosen caregiver (the trustee) can use the funds you leave for your furry friend. And unlike a will, a pet trust doesn’t go through probate, so it goes into effect immediately in the event you become incapacitated or pass away, whereas a will requires the court process called probate to take place before any decisions can officially be made about your pet.

Additionally, in a pet trust, you can name backup trustees who will receive your pet and any funds left for them if the first person you chose as trustee declines to take your pet or isn’t able to care for them in the future. To add even more certainty to your pet’s future, you can name multiple trustees for your pet. In this way, you’d have two people invested in the care of your pet who can see that the money you leave for its care is used wisely.

Finally, all of the care decisions and financial distributions for the care of your pet will happen in the privacy of our office, in the event of your death or incapacity. We’ll guide your decision-makers about how and why you made your decisions, and how they need to care for your pet to receive distributions. You’ll literally have a lawyer ensuring the care of your pet happens as you would want it. While that may seem excessive for some, we have many clients who care that much about the well-being of their pets and want to ensure their care is handled as they want.

Do Right By Your Pet

Don’t leave your beloved pet’s future up to chance. Let us help you create a pet trust that will provide for your furry friend’s long-term care and be there for your pet and your decision-makers when you cannot be.

At our firm, we can help you create a legally binding pet trust that outlines detailed rules for how your pet’s chosen caregiver can use the funds you leave for their care. Unlike a will, a pet trust doesn’t go through probate, which means it goes into effect immediately if you become incapacitated or pass away. We’ll be there for the people you love when you cannot.

This article is a service of Brittany Cohen, Personal Family Lawyer. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session, during which you’ll get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

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858-427-0539

If you have a current estate plan, I’ll bet you plan to leave your assets to your children outright and unprotected by age 35, or maybe a little later. Go take a look at your estate plan, and see what it does right now. And, if you don’t have an estate plan, and you have kids or other people you care about, contact us today and let’s get that handled for you.

If you do have a plan and it distributes your assets outright to your kids — even in stages, over time, some at 25, then half of what’s left at 30, and balance at 35 (or something along those lines), you’ve overlooked an incredibly valuable gift you can give your children (and the rest of your descendants for generations); a gift that only you can give them. And a gift that, once you’ve died and left them their inheritance outright, is lost and cannot be reclaimed.

Leave your kids a nest egg protected from lawsuits, divorce, and estate taxes.

While you may think to yourself, “my kids’ inheritance doesn’t need to be protected. They aren’t going to get sued.” You may be right, but you may also be overlooking one of the most common “lawsuits” that causes inheritances to be lost everyday, and that’s divorce. If you want to protect the money you’re leaving to your children from their future divorces, even if you love their spouses or expect you will, in the future, you can easily do so using a protected trust.

And, if your child is ever involved in a lawsuit, for example, a simple car accident, or if a business transaction goes bad, what you leave to your child can be protected from all future lawsuits or claims against them.

The best part is that if your child has their own taxable estate when they die, your planning now could save your family 40 cents on every dollar (or more) handed down from one generation to the next.

Save your family up to 40 cents on every dollar — currently — at each generation.

As of 2023, the current federal estate tax rate is 40% — meaning that every dollar passed on over the estate tax exemption rate is taxed at 40%. And it has been as high as 55%. On top of that, many states have estate taxes as well.

This all adds up fast, and can decimate your family’s financial legacy over time. For every million dollars you leave outright to your children, if your children have a taxable estate when they die, could result in your grandchildren receiving only $550,000, with $450,000 going to the government … unnecessarily.

So, if you want to know that everything you’ve worked so hard to create will stay in your family for generations to come and not be lost to outsiders, leaving your assets to your children protected in a trust we call a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust, instead of outright, is the way to go. And, it can be easily built into your existing estate plan or trust. You just need to ask us to help you get a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust added to your plan.

But how will my kids get to use what I leave to them?

Here’s the best part about leaving your assets to your children in a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust. Not only is what you leave protected, but your children control what you leave them when you decide they’re ready.

After your death, the assets you leave behind will pass to your children (and your grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on for successive generations) in a Trust that your child can control, as the Trustee of the Trust. You can decide when your child is mature enough to act as a Trustee.

As the Trustee of the Trust, your child decides how what you’ve left is invested and what to do with the Trust assets. And your child will even be able to determine the amount of control vs. the amount of asset protection he or she wants based on his or her specific circumstances.

Is this still important if I don’t have much money?

If you only leave your children a small amount of money, this is still incredibly valuable for protection, if you’re leaving assets that will be invested and grown, and not just spent right away on consumables. Some might say it’s even more important because your family has less to lose to taxes, lawsuits, and divorce each generation. And the impact of such losses is much greater.

A mere $10,000 protected now can become millions for the people you love for generations to come.

Imagine that you leave just $10,000 to your child in a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust, and instead of spending that $10,000 or losing it in a divorce, they invest that $10,000 in creating their own business inside their trust, and then grow that business into a million dollar or multi-million dollar venture because of how you chose to leave your child that $10,000 gift … and it’s fully protected for generations.

Secure the future of your family today by speaking to us. We review estate plans and inherited funds with you, ensuring that all legalities are in place so generations can enjoy the benefits according to your wishes. Get peace of mind now – contact us today to get started

[email protected]

858-427-0539