Does your Oregon estate plan provide for your pets or other animals?
Whether your trusted pet, service animal, or other animals in your life, you consider them companions, friends, and even family. However, for the pets and animals you own, Oregon law considers them as property. Fortunately, Oregon pet trusts are a useful legal tool you can use to provide for your animals after you’re gone, so they’re not just inherited, but cared for.
Why including your animals in your Oregon estate plan is essential
Default rules in inheritance laws can mean that your animal goes to someone who might not want it or be able to care for it.
For planning your estate, if you don’t take proactive steps to provide for your animals, then default estate rules come into play. That means that your most precious pet, the livestock you treasure, or the service animal that’s been your trusted companion, becomes another piece of personal property to be distributed out via the terms of your will or state law.
Providing for your animals in your Oregon estate plan is essential, so that they can go to the right places or people, and even be provided for by your estate.
Providing for your pet needs the enforceable legal protection of a trust, not a handshake or verbal agreement
You might come to informal arrangements with someone about your animals. A verbal agreement is deniable and subject to misunderstandings. Someone could claim they didn’t agree to take the animal after all, or they may not have understood your full intentions.
Perhaps someone has said they’ll take care of the animal for you. However, they have no obligation to do so. Should no one agree to accept the animal, odds are that animal will go into a shelter or other system, and its quality of life may suffer.
Mere gifting doesn’t suffice either. Your will, a handshake, or a verbal agreement can spell out your wishes. Your will could even allocate money to a person with the intention that the funds provide for the animal.
However, those terms aren’t enforceable. A person could receive the animal and funds, then decide to use the funds for something else, with no repercussions, requirements, or recourse. Once a person receives a gift or bequest under a will, they are then free to do as they wish.
Oregon pet trusts are different.
What is a pet trust?
Legally speaking, here’s what a pet trust is in Oregon, as spelled out in ORS 130.185 / UTC 408:
“A trust may be created to provide for the care of one or more animals that are alive during the settlor’s lifetime. The trust terminates upon the death of the animal or, if the trust was created to provide for the care of more than one animal, upon the death of the last surviving animal. An oral or written declaration shall be liberally construed in favor of finding the creation of a trust under this section.”
What Oregon pet trusts do
- Provides rules and resources for the care of one or more animals
- Creates legally enforceable arrangements
- Names a caregiver
- Allocates resources for the animal’s care, upkeep, and quality of life
- Specifies known instructions and considerations such as for feeding, medical care, boarding, and/or grooming
- Ends after the death of the animal or last surviving animal in the trust
Your pet trust can be part of a will, included inside a broader revocable living trust, or be its own legal document.
The people named in the trust
A pet trust often has two named people:
- The caregiver receives ownership of the animal
- The trustee oversees resources, money, and adherence to the terms of the trust
When possible, it’s preferable to designate a separate caregiver and owner. That way, multiple people look out for the animal’s welfare, and there’s increased accountability.
Trustees have a legal obligation to follow the terms of the trust and make sure that the caregiver follows the rules too.
Pet trusts have the flexibility to go into effect upon the death of the original owner, or if that person is planning for incapacitation or not being able to care for the animal anymore, the pet trust can be part of a living trust that goes into effect while the owner is still alive.
How to fund a pet trust, and how much is enough?
When determining the right amount of resources or assets Oregon pet trusts need, here are some considerations:
- Type, age, and lifestyle of animal
- Expected remaining lifespan
- Care costs
- Medical expenses
- Re-homing and/or boarding costs
- Planning for emergencies and contingencies
Courts have authority to check amounts and trust terms, and to order reductions should they consider spending excessive. Generally, courts expect the trust to maintain accurate records and sufficient documentation, and may be more inclined to allow appropriate spending as long as there is documentation and evidence to support it.
Funding the Oregon pet trust could come from a range of sources, such as personal savings and other financial assets, beneficiary designations on investment accounts, or a life insurance policy that names the trust as its beneficiary.
Common estate mistakes with pets and other animals in Oregon
These are the most common mistakes made by animal owners in Oregon with their pets or other animals:
- Insufficient resources: Not enough money or other resources available for the ongoing daily and long-term care of the animal.
- No backup caregiver named: Pet trusts benefit by naming not only a caregiver and a trustee, but alternates should the person specified no longer be able or wish to serve in the role.
- Lack of specifics: If an animal has specific care needs or requirements, the pet trust needs to specify those details
Owners may also consider contingencies around local shelters or other animal-focused organizations. For example, an owner might include gifts or designations to a shelter, for the animal’s care and rehousing, with the requirement that the shelter work to find a new home for the animal.
When is a pet trust right for you and your animal?
To be clear, not every owner/animal situation requires a pet trust in Oregon. Sometimes a simple solution is better.
For example, an owner may consider designating a caregiver and a bequest in their will. That can be the right choice when they have sufficient reason to consider that sufficient, such as a family member they know and trust who has offered to take care of the animal after the owner’s passing. Again, though, it’s important to remember that such a bequest in a will, or informal bequest, has no enforceability or accountability.
The more complex the situation or the higher the needs of the animal, the more likely a pet trust is the right choice.
Is a pet trust the right protection for your pets and other animals?
Whether a beloved family pet, a trusted service animal, or the backyard livestock that you consider part of the family, the animals in your life deserve protection and being accounted for in your Oregon estate plan.
A pet trust can provide legally enforceable provisions that govern your pet’s ongoing ownership, care, and quality of life. It gives you more options, and more peace of mind, than a handshake agreement or a couple of lines in your will. Plus, trusts have legal mechanisms that can ensure that those taking care of the animal do so in the animal’s best interest.
Whatever your animals, situation, or wishes, there is a way to provide for them under your Oregon estate plan. Ready to talk over what’s right for you?
Image by huoadg5888 from Pixabay
