Putting a Pet in Your Will Isn’t Just for the Super Wealthy
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Here's your money briefing for Monday, August 19th. I'm Arianna Espuru for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whelan. It's the first face you see when you get home, right when you walk through the door.
your pet maybe you've got one or five and they're your best friend basically part of the family right but like any other family member do your pets have a spot in your will it's not just for the super wealthy more and more people are adding pets to their estate plans some people
What trend is driving more people to include pets in their wills?
It could be up to $100,000 for some people, $1,000 per pet per year. You have to look at the life expectancy of your pet and how you really want it treated. You can't leave money directly to your pet, but you can assign a caretaker and then you would leave that person money. We'll talk to Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Ashley Ebling about it after the break.
Still running global payroll like a relay race? Deal replaces fragmented payroll vendors with one global system. No third parties. Hire, manage, and pay teams in 150-plus countries with in-house local experts and white-glove delivery. And Deal plugs into what you already use. Workday, SAP, NetSuite. Operate like a local, everywhere. Visit deel.com slash wsj. That's deel.com slash wsj.
Setting aside some money in your will for your pet is becoming more common. So how does it work? Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Ashleya Ebling joins me. Ashleya, I grew up having multiple pets in the home, usually a big dog, a small dog, maybe a parrot. But I've never considered what would happen to them when I'm no longer around, let alone including them in my will. Why are people doing this?
So it used to be just for the super wealthy with horses and maybe long-lived pets like parrots. But now that pets are really a member of the family for most families, they're making their way into wills. It's mostly cats and dogs just because most people have cats and dogs.
How do legal rules limit leaving money directly to a pet?
But it's really everything, fish, birds, rodents, and online businesses. Will, a state planning service, Trust and Will, looked at pets their members were providing for, and there was even a Mexican red-legged tarantula.
How are people going about this? Can you leave money for your pets?
So that's the technical legalese you need to know. You can't leave money directly to your pet. But you can assign a caretaker, and then you would leave that person money.
And how do people gauge the amount of money to leave for their pet?
Some people... It could be up to $100,000 for some people, $1,000 per pet per year. You have to look at the life expectancy of your pet and how you really want it treated. And then one woman I talked to, she gave extra because she realized she didn't want it to be a burden on the caretakers. How much extra did she leave? Well, she did something called a pet trust. So not just a little extra. She left $120,000 for her cat's care.
How do caretakers and pet directives work in an estate plan?
But she had 12 cats when she created the pet trust, and she now has six. And she did say that the caretakers were coming into a little money. What happens if you don't specify who gets your pets in a will? If you die without a will, the state law determines who inherits everything. And then with no plan, pets can be kicked out of the house. They could be dropped off at a kill shelter or they could just become one more thing basically for heirs to fight over.
And even if you do assign someone to take care of your pet after you're gone, are they legally obligated to do it?
So that's tricky too with a pet directive in your will where you assign the guardian and you possibly leave the guardian money. There's no court oversight basically at that point.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:17
2
What trend is driving more people to include pets in their wills?
1:17–3:09
3
How do legal rules limit leaving money directly to a pet?
3:09–4:07
4
How do caretakers and pet directives work in an estate plan?
4:07–5:34
5
How do people decide how much money to allocate for a pet’s care?
5:34–7:42
6
What is a pet trust and how does it differ from a simple will provision?
7:42–8:57
Speakers
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