Plan for your Pet(s)

If you live in British Columbia and you own a pet, you may wish to consider making specific arrangements to provide for your non-human family members upon your passing.

Despite how much we pet loving folks care about our pets and consider them to be part of our family, they are considered our property as far as the Wills, Estates, and Succession Act is concerned. Unless one’s pets are specifically given to someone under one’s Will, they will form part of the residue of one’s estate.

Often one’s executor is left with a wide discretion to determine how the residue of one’s estate will be distributed. This can mean the determination of the future of one’s pets is left almost entirely at the discretion of one’s executor.

Unfortunately, sometimes none of the beneficiaries of an estate are interested in taking on the pets of the deceased and the executor is generally under no obligation to find them a home or take on the responsibility for the pets themselves. This can lead to pets being given up to a shelter, or, in the saddest cases, euthanized.

Use your Will

One way of reducing the chances of one’s pets ending up without a home when one passes is to use one’s Will to specifically gift the pets to someone known to be willing and able to take on the responsibility of providing them with a loving and caring home.

In one’s Will, one may also provide a specific cash gift to the caregiver to help with the cost of caring for the pets. One can make receipt of the pets and money conditional on the caregiver agreeing, in writing, to provide the pets with lifetime care. While this may not be binding on the caregiver, taking these steps can go a long way to reminding the caregiver that the money is for the pets' benefit.

Create a Trust

If one is concerned that the caregiver might not apply money they are given to the care of one’s pet, another alternative is to create a trust. The trust can then pay money from the fund to the caregiver in installments which are conditional on the caregiver continuing to provide care for the pets. This usually involves more ongoing work and oversight for one’s executor / trustee but can offer some additional protection in situations where one feels the caregiver might need to be supervised.

As we have discussed in many previous posts, there are plenty of other important reasons to put a Will in place. Putting plans in place to provide for the care of your pets when you pass can usually be accomplished as a part of your other estate planning without significant additional expense and can make a world of difference for your pets down the road.