Living in Ohio, you’ve always had the space to have the pets you wanted. You have a dog that you love, raised award-winning horses and have many animals that rely on you.
Today, you’re thinking about what might happen to your pets if you pass away. While you believe that your children and family will take care of them, you want to know that they’ll be cared for in your absence. How can you be sure?
Setting up a pet trust is an option
One of the options that you might want to consider is setting up a pet trust. A pet trust is much like other kinds of trusts in that it has the power to protect your pets and pass on property. A pet trust can be used to make sure your pets have the financial support they need once you pass away and that the correct guardians are assigned to take care of them in the future.
Using a pet trust
In your estate plan, you can set up a pet trust that helps take care of your pets when you’re no longer able to do so. To start with, you will need to select a trustee, which is the person who manages the trust.
After that, you’ll want to select one or more caregivers for your pets. For example, your daughter might be interested in providing a home to your elderly dog, but your son might prefer to take on caring for your horses.
A trust like this does need to be enforced, because a pet doesn’t have the ability to sue if it isn’t cared for. So, you should select an enforcer who can make sure the trust is carried out the way it’s supposed to be.
Following this, you need to establish the beneficiary. Pets aren’t beneficiaries, exactly, so you will need to assign assets to them in a somewhat unique way. You’ll have to describe your pet in great detail, provide photos and information from microchips and so on.
In this trust, one of the major benefits is that you can provide care instructions. Go over the standard of care you expect, so your trust can be as protected as possible.