Estate Planning for Your Pets

If you’re planning your estate, and you have a pet, you may be wondering if you can include your pet in your estate plan.

The answer is yes. Most states, including Oklahoma, allow you to create a trust for the care of an animal. Leona Helmsley, the infamous New York hotelier, left $12 million in trust to care for her dog. (A judge later reduced this amount to $2 million.)

To fully understand animal trust, it’s necessary for a bit of background on what a trust is. A trust is a legal entity, where one person controls property for the benefit of another.

·         The person who creates the trust is the settlor.

·         The person who manages the property is the trustee.

·         The person for whose property the property is managed, is the beneficiary.

An animal trust is different from a traditional trust in that the beneficiary is not a human being.

Oklahoma’s law on animal trusts

In 2010, the Oklahoma legislature passed a law allowing you to create a trust fund for an animal; this law can be found here. This law provides that:

·         You may create a trust for the care of one or more “domestic or pet animals.”

·         The trust terminates when all of the animals die, unless the terms of the trust say that it terminates earlier.

·         You may name a trustee in the trust. If you don’t name a trustee, or if the trustee is not willing to serve as trustee, then a judge will name the trustee.

·         The trustee is entitled to trustee fees and expenses for administrating the trust, unless the trust says otherwise. The trustee may take these fees from the trust property.

·         The trustee shall ensure that the animal is cared for under the terms of the trust. If the trust doesn’t specify how the animal should be cared for, the trustee must ensure that the care provided for the animal is “reasonable under the circumstances.”

·         The trustee may employ people to care for the animal, and pay for the care from the trust property.

·         The trustee must make sure that the property of a pet trust is used only as the trustee intended.

·         The settlor may appoint a person to act as “enforcer.” The enforcer may bring a court action against the trustee if the trustee is not properly performing his duties. Unless the trust specifically provides, the enforcer and the trustee may not be the same person.

·         The person who is actually taking care of the animal may also bring a legal action against the trustee if the trustee is not performing his duties.

·         If the property in the trust is greater than $20,000, the trustee must provide an accounting to the enforcer, to show how the trustee is managing the trust property. The trustee must perform this accounting just as a trustee of any other trust. If the value of the trust is less than $20,000, the trustee doesn’t need to provide an accounting, unless the trust requires an accounting or a judge orders one.

·         A pet trust must identify a “remainder beneficiary.” The remainder beneficiary is entitled to collect all of the trust property that remains after the animal(s) die or the trust otherwise terminates. If the trust does not name a remainder beneficiary, then, after the animal(s) die or the trust terminates, then the property of the trust shall go back to the settlor, or to the settlor’s heirs if the settlor is deceased.

·         The remainder beneficiary may also sue the trustee if the trustee is not performing his duties.

A Word of Warning

Pet trusts are a creation of the animal rights movement. While I don’t normally make political statements on this blog, I do feel compelled to issue a warning about the dangers of the animal rights movement.

The animal rights movement is not, as it claims to be, merely a movement to treat animals more humanely. Rather, the animal rights movement seeks to argue that animals have the same rights as humans. A number of animal rights activists have argued that killing animals is no different from killing humans. This was of thinking has led some in the animal rights movement to commit violent acts – witness the enormous damage caused by eco-terrorists in recent years.

In the limited space in this post, I’m not going to discuss all of the problems associated with the animal rights movement. But, if you are interested in knowing more about the philosophical fallacies, and the inherent danger, in the animal rights movement, I recommend these two articles here and here. These articles are written from a Christian perspective, and they describe the Christian understanding for the proper treatment of animals; they also show why the animal rights movement is incompatible with Christianity.

I am not opposed to pet trusts per se, and I would be willing to create a pet trust for a client. But I will not endorse the radicalism of the animal rights movement which has engaged in much of the lobbying for state pet trust laws.

Need Help with a Pet Trust? Contact the Persaud Law Office

The Persaud Law Office has created estate plans and trusts for many people, and we are willing to help you. If you would like our assistance, please do not hesitate to give us a call.

Photo courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet#/media/File:Trillium_Poncho_cat_dog.jpg. Licensed under CC BY 2.5.