flyzipper
Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
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Others were discussing When to consider rehoming for the bird's benefit? and the topic of no longer being able to care for them obviously came up.
I found this video useful in that regard. The notes below cover a lot of ground, but it's worthwhile watching the video because it contains many details that aren't captured here.
Phoenix Landing webinar
Speaker: Professor Gerry Beyer, J.S.D., LL.M., J.D.
Texas Tech University, School of Law
talk focuses on birds, but also applies to other pets
Associated Handout - What If Your Parrot Outlives You? Preparing for Your Bird’s Future by Gerry W. Beyer :: SSRN
ASPCA Pet Planning - Getting Started
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel - ACTEC | The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
Other threads on Avian Avenue which discuss the topic - Search results for query: estate planning
I found this video useful in that regard. The notes below cover a lot of ground, but it's worthwhile watching the video because it contains many details that aren't captured here.
Phoenix Landing webinar
Speaker: Professor Gerry Beyer, J.S.D., LL.M., J.D.
Texas Tech University, School of Law
talk focuses on birds, but also applies to other pets
- covers scenarios where you're unavailable, disabled, or deceased
- planning is required, nothing happens by accident
- Overview of planning techniques
- Unavailable (short term)
- animal wallet card (informs emergency workers you have an animal at home that needs care)
- animal document or notebook (details how to care for each pet, make it easy to find)
- door sign (like the wallet card, but placed near your home's door)
- Disabled (long term)
- durable financial power of attorney (authorizes an agent to spend pet owner's money for pet care, or place the pets with a caregiver and pay those expenses) names a person who can handle your financial affairs, and requires specific provisions for your pets if you want them covered.
- if that isn't done, the court gets involved and your wishes may not be followed
- Deceased
- pet trust
- Unavailable (short term)
- statutory pet trust (works in all states) - very simple and inexpensive, but doesn't provide as many details as the traditional pet trust, the "better than nothing" plan, but not recommended. You just need a provision in your will to trigger, but the details are based on state law, not your unique wishes.
- traditional pet trust (works in any State or Canada) - caregiver/beneficiary receives funds for pet care in accordance with pet owner's directions. The "gold standard" of pet planning (best choice). This allows you to transfer your pet and money to a named trustee, who manages the property (because pets are property). You name a beneficiary (caregiver) to receive payments from the trustee conditioned on the proper care of your pet according to your instruction (trustee monitors this). Should engage a lawyer to set this up properly (they should be an expert in estate planning and pet trusts). State bar associations will have lists of lawyers who are certified in estate planning. Google "pet trust lawyer" in your state may also yield results. One of the best ways is to use the ACTEC | The American College of Trust and Estate Counselsite.
- Things to think about in the creation of a pet trust, before speaking to your lawyer (video goes into more detail for each factor)
- time of creation (when you're alive, or after you die)
- designate the caregiver/beneficiary, name alternatives, and have a succession plan (never name the trustee)
- nominate the trustee to watch over the caregiver and manage trust property
- transfer the animal(s) to the trust
- transfer other property to the trust to support the animal(s)
Warning about leaving large ("unreasonable") sums to the pet trust, as it opens things up to be contested by human heirs, and state law may change the amount to what they think is reasonable. - methods of funding (if you have sufficient funds, you may fund it yourself, but you can also use life insuranceor retirement plans to fund the trust).
- endowment approach - trust property earns income which is used for the pet (only use if principal is needed), useful for long-lived pets
- spend-down approach - draws from the principal of the trust, used with smaller amounts of funding.
- describe the pet's standard of living expectations (food, toys, cages, grooming, socialization, medical care, etc), used by the trustee to assess the caregiver.
- specify the distribution method for the pet's care (fixed sum, trustee discretion, monthly expense reimbursement, etc).
- consider additional distributions for caregivers (incentivize caregiver quality, but draws down trust more quickly).
- limit the duration of the trust (lawyer will handle) - important because parrots can outlive the state's usual trust duration. Can be created in other states with better trust laws.
- designate a remainder beneficiary (who gets the remaining property when the pet dies), never designate the caregiver as that is an obvious conflict of interest.
- identify the animal to prevent fraud (document identifying marks, tattoo, band, microchip, DNA)
- require the trustee to inspect the pets on a regular basis (random unannounced visits)
- provide instructions for final disposition of the pet (pet cemetery, cremation, etc)
- Things to think about in the creation of a pet trust, before speaking to your lawyer (video goes into more detail for each factor)
- Other options outside of pet trusts
- outright gift of pet and money (risky and uncertain, but cheap and easy)
- transfer to a life care centre (good for hard-to-place exotic pets, may require endowment)
- Q&A
- how much money to assign to the trust (think about how much money you spend per year, and multiply that by the anticipated life expectancy... could use this figure to determine the initial trust funding)
- any life insurance policy can be used, just designate the pet trust as the beneficiary
- traditional pet trusts can contain any instruction that isn't illegal
Associated Handout - What If Your Parrot Outlives You? Preparing for Your Bird’s Future by Gerry W. Beyer :: SSRN
ASPCA Pet Planning - Getting Started
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel - ACTEC | The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
Other threads on Avian Avenue which discuss the topic - Search results for query: estate planning
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