Lest you think planning for pets isn't a big deal in estate planning, here are a few statistics. Two-thirds of Americans have a pet, and most love them on a par with their less furry family members. Yet, about 500,000 pets are euthanized each year because there wasn't sufficient advance planning done to ensure them a safe new home once their owners were gone. That's all straight from Animal Care Trust USA, which has a website with lots of good suggestions to avoid that result.
So, what do you do, besides hoping that one of your kids will make a nice home for your beloved English bulldog Winston? And what if your soulmate is a parrot who'll want a cracker for 50 or more years and will need to be played with daily to keep him from harming himself?
Ah, the solution is as close as your revocable trust - which can not only protect your young, human family members and keep them all out of the probate process, but yes, can also guaranty the social security of some of your most precious and companionable assets. Sure, you have to plan ahead, but it's called estate planning after all, and these beloved critters are definitely as much a part of most estates as rings, paintings and all that brown furniture that nobody's going to want anyhow.
Here are some suggestions. Identify someone who loves your pets almost as much as you do and talk with them about their willingness to take over; also pick a backup caregiver, if possible, in case your pets are likely to outlive your contemporaries; figure out your pets' likely longevity and calculate how much you may need to set aside for their care (the American Pet Products Association has a website and can help); then add something meaningful for the human benefactor(s) who'll be committing countless hours and efforts to this critical undertaking; and finally write the whole plan down in as much detail as you can muster (i.e., food, exercise routine, habits, likes/dislikes, vet of choice).
If your trust is already in place, just amend it to incorporate all this information on an attached schedule that you can then revise whenever necessary - say, when Winston goes to his reward and Adele takes the stage. You'll also need to decide whether to keep the trust active for the remaining lives of these special beneficiaries - with distributions made for their care - or just to commit them outright to your trusted pet protectors, together with your pre-arranged plans and funds, and count on them to take over from there. The latter is certainly simpler, but you alone will decide how much ongoing supervision and control you'll want your trustee to exercise.