{"id":873,"date":"2022-06-20T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/?p=873"},"modified":"2022-06-20T19:21:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T19:21:39","slug":"planning-for-your-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/planning-for-your-pets","title":{"rendered":"Planning for Your Pets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you have pets, consider including them in your estate plan. In doing so, your documents can address:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who will take your pets if you die or become incompetent?<\/li>\n<li>Who will find them a good home?<\/li>\n<li>How will the costs of your pets be handled?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Regarding who will take your pets or who will find them a good home, options include the following:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Your estate documents can give your pets outright to someone you know, ideally a responsible, trustworthy person.&nbsp; You can designate alternate choices to take your pets.&nbsp; If you wish, funds can be given to the caregiver for each pet.&nbsp; You may wish to provide detailed care and feeding instructions.<\/li>\n<li>Alternatively, for California residents, you can use a trust to provide for your pets.&nbsp; This provides a flexible method for managing the funds to care for your pets.&nbsp; Funds remaining in the trust can be distributed in the manner directed by you.&nbsp; With a pet trust, you should nominate a trustworthy and suitable caretaker (and alternates) or instruct the trustee regarding the trustee\u2019s responsibility for finding a suitable home for your pets.&nbsp; The pet trust can pay for all expenses related to the proper care of your pets.<\/li>\n<li>If you have no suitable person to take your pets, you can leave your pets to an organization.&nbsp; A number of California animal protection organizations have programs that provide permanent care or guarantee placement of companion animals if their owners die or become incompetent.&nbsp; Examples include:\n<ul>\n<li>San Francisco Society of Prevention of Cruelty of Animals &#8211; Sido Service<\/li>\n<li>Animal Rescue Foundation- &nbsp;Guardian Program<\/li>\n<li>Berkeley East Bay Humane Society<\/li>\n<li>California Cat Center, Inc. &#8211; Lifecare Program<\/li>\n<li>East Bay SPCA &#8211; Pet Survivor Placement Program<\/li>\n<li>Friends of Cats, Inc. &#8211; Lifetime Care<\/li>\n<li>Helen Woodward Animal Center<\/li>\n<li>Hopalong Animal Rescue Pet Survivor Humane Society of Marin County<\/li>\n<li>National Cat Protection Society &#8211; Retirement<\/li>\n<li>North County Humane Society &#8211; Friends of Life<\/li>\n<li>Pet Pride (Los Angeles)<\/li>\n<li>SPCA of Monterey &#8211; Guardian Angel Future Care Program<\/li>\n<li>Tony La Russa\u2019s Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) &#8211; Guardian Program<\/li>\n<li>Valley Animal Center-No Kill Shelter (Fresno)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Your durable general power of attorney, will, and living trust can include provisions as to who will be responsible for implementing &nbsp;your pet plan.<\/p>\n<p>Your documents can also provide that a sum of money be given to each person (or organization) who takes each pet.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, your estate documents can reflect your wishes as to who will take your pets, how they will be carried for, and what financial assistance is to be provided.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2022 Phillips Law Offices, A Professional Corporation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have pets, consider including them in your estate plan. In doing so, your documents can address: Who will take your pets if you die or become incompetent? Who will find them a good home? How will the costs of your pets be handled? Regarding who will take your pets or who will find &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/planning-for-your-pets\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Planning for Your Pets<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,21,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estate-planning","category-family","category-living-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}