Providing for your Pets in your Will – Sample Will provisions and Pet Trusts
In making an estate plan and preparing for the future, most are careful to account for all their assets and personal possessions in their will, but what about your pets? If you're a pet owner – and you do not include them in your estate planning, your pet may suffer, starve, or destined to a fate that you would never have wanted. Sometimes, and because formal arrangements are not in the making, a pet owner will merely entrust his animal to a close friend or family member by some informal means. We can all envision how that scenario might play out in the worst of circumstances. Even in the best of those circumstances, the pet's new owner may not be able to keep the pet because of allergies, lack of time, conflict with other pets, or a prohibition of pets in residence. A pet owner's only assurance is to draft legally enforceable documents to guarantee the pet's future.