Life Insurance Quotes

Estate planning and pets

08/03/11

A Wall Street Journal article makes note of the importance of factoring pets into estate plans. The article states that people with estate plans and life insurance policies sometimes overlook the fact that in their death, they will be leaving behind an ownerless pet.

Shari Levitan, the head of private wealth services at Holland and Knight in Boston, told the source, "You can't forget about the softer side of planning. Pets are very real members of the family that need to be addressed."

The article notes that in the past, many people chose to set up honorary trusts that provided lump sums to a friend or family member who would care for the pet. Agreements such as these have no legal bearing, however, and they rely on the beneficiary's willingness to actually spend the money on the pet.

Two types of pet trusts, traditional and statutory, are effective in most U.S. states. Traditional trusts have people name a trustee who will pay money to the beneficiary as long as he or she cares for the pet, while statutory trusts use state law to dictate the details of how a pet trust is carried out.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, there were approximately 71 million dogs, 82 million cats, 11 million birds and 7 million horses serving as pets in the United States in 2007. 

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