A Legal MinuteCautionary tales
Trusts That Fund Pets and Animal Charities
The short answer
In one trust discussed on the podcast, each animal had a designated caretaker. Some were to keep doing activities like agility, with money for vet care and lifelong comfort. The rest was to go to charities, which the speaker recalled included the SPCA and some animal rescues; caretakers were also left small thank-you sums.
From the full episode Real-Life Probate Horror Stories & Lessons Learned (20:29).
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Transcript
I believe it was, like, the SPCA, and then a couple other more niche, like, I think the rescues where they got the animals from, something that was personal to them. And I liked it because it's your money. Spend it how you want. Like, your money should go where you want it to go, which is why we always encourage people to do their estate plans. Because if you want to give it all to charity, then do it, if that's what's important to you.
And I just really liked it because each animal had a specific person that was in charge of their care. Some of the animals were in, like, activities such as, I'm sure people have seen the agility games that the dogs go through the different tunnels and up and down. And so in that trust it said, I want them to continue to still participate in these things. They are, you know, almost kind of like a little kid, say, keep them in hockey, keep them in band. I mean, it's, you know, there's the dock diving where they'll throw the thing and they'll jump.
And so in this particular case it was, hey, I want them to continue those activities, and this is for their vet care, and, you know, keep them comfortable for the rest of their lives. And then when it's all done, it goes out to, you know, the different charities. And to their credit, this person did leave little sums for the people that were taking care of the animals, like, hey, in addition to taking care of the animal, I'm going to gift you like $5,000 as a thank you.
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