Don't forget to provide for your pet's future after you are gone.
edited by Joanne Skidmore

Because pets usually have shorter life spans than their human caregivers, you may have planned for your animal friend's passing. But what if you are the one who dies first? As a responsible guardian, you provide your pet with food and water, shelter, veterinary care and love. To ensure that your beloved pet will continue to receive this care should something happen to you, it is critical to plan ahead.

What can I do now to prepare for the unexpected?
Or, how to prevent your beloved Sammie from being home alone for days.

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In the confusion that accompanies a person's unexpected incapacitation or death, pets may be overlooked. In some cases, pets are discovered in the person's home days after the incapacitation or tragedy. To prevent this from happening to your pet, take these simple precautions:

• Find at least two responsible friends or family members who agree to serve as temporary emergency caregivers in the event that something unexpected happens to you. Provide them with keys to your home and care instructions. Give family members their names and numbers so that they can be contacted in case of emergency. If your pets are housed with a kennel while you are on a trip, make certain to give that information to your family and temporary emergency caregivers. Have an emergency caregiver's file that your family and caregivers know where to find. Include information about eating habits, veterinarian, medications, health history, vaccinations paperwork, microchip details and anything else that is important for your pets' caregivers to know.

• Carry a wallet alert card that lists the names and phone numbers of your emergency pet caregivers. Post removable "in case of emergency" notices on your door or windows specifying how many and what types of pets you have.

• Make formal arrangements that specifically cover the care of your pet. It's not enough that long ago your friend verbally promised to take care of your pet. Work with an attorney to draw up a special will, trust or other document to provide for the care and guardianship of your pet(s) as well as the money necessary to care for him or her.

Establishing an honorary trust for your pet

Some states now provide for the existence of honorary pet trusts (or something similar), which allow for a pet owner to ensure his or her pets are well provided for. If permitted by your state law, this trust would be a testamentary trust meaning that it will come into being at the time of your death. Careful consideration should be given to who is selected as trustee. The trustee has a legal obligation to protect and appropriately apply funds left in trust. If a trustee is to be designated under an owner's will, the trustee should be someone the pet owner trusts quite well and is capable of caring for the pet.

Things to consider when determining who to ask to take on the responsibilities for your pets:

Does the person have a large enough home or apartment to accommodate the pet?

What happens if this person is no longer able to serve as trustee for any reason?

What happens if a pet owner moves to another state? Some states do not have comparable honorary pet trust laws and some states have variations of the Iowa law.

Is the life span of the pet to be provided for in excess of 21 years (the allowed duration of many honorary pet trusts)?

What are the tax consequences of the honorary trust?

What can you do if your state does not have such a law? Consider leaving a specified amount of money to the caregivers you have selected rather than to your pet in trust.

An estate planning professional should be consulted to assist with the proper drafting of the honorary pet trust or other provisions for your pets to allow someone to properly care for beloved pets and for the trust to survive scrutiny under law.

Adapted and reprinted with permission. Tom L. Colvin, Executive Director, Animal Rescue League of Iowa, Inc. 5452 N.E. 22^nd Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50313

(Reprinted with Permission from the NISA Rescue Review--June, 2006)