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Yes, Oklahoma allows you to establish a Trust now or in your estate planning documents to support and care for your animals. This is a good option when there is larger number of pets (but this certainly can be done for only one animal) or where there is a sufficient amount of money. If this is one of your primary desires – the future care of your animals – you should investigate the Pet Trust. Now you cannot name the animal(s) as the direct named beneficiaries of the Trust – this causes the trust to be void. But just like you were establishing a trust for minor children, you can set up the trust with a caretaker/guardian/trustee and instruct the trustee how and when to distribute the funds for the care of your pets.

The hard questions are:

• How much money to fund the trust? • What happens to the money when the animals die? (This can create a conflict of interest if the caretaker gets the money that is left once the pets die). • How explicit do you get with the instructions of how to care for the animals? • Do you want to leave instructions for the final disposition of the pet upon its death? (Pet Cemeteries and Crematories are in most major cities. Tulsa has more than one.) • Should the trustee be given the power to name a new caregiver if the primary and successor caregivers named in the trust fail?

Just as with trusts for human beneficiaries, trusts for animals can be established during the pet owner’s life or by Will after the pet owner dies. The benefit of having the trust established during your life and in place is that you become disabled or must move into a care facility that does not allow pets, everything that is needed for your pets to be cared for is already in place. You can even appoint a person or entity to be a trust advisor or otherwise have “standing” to question how the trust is being administered or how the pets are being cared for.

For certain people and certain pets, a viable alternative is a pet retirement home. If you have sufficient funds and you want to be certain that there will be someone there to help with your animals (or your animals have special needs), this alternative can give you great peace of mind. This option requires advanced planning and a reservation fee is usually required while you are still alive to assure that they will accept your pet when you are deceased. OSU offers such a program and it is called the Cohn Pet Care Facility. It was built as a permanent home for animals whose owners planned in advance to ensure their beloved pets would be cared for in the owner’s absence. The reservation/endowment paid up front secures the funds necessary to provide shelter, food and veterinary care for the life of your pet. There are other such facilities around the country and new ones appearing each year. Just be sure to do your homework to verify that the facility is sufficiently funded so that it will still be in business when the need arises.

The above options are summaries only and other questions pertaining to each need to be discussed. But if you are one of the millions of people with pets as a member of your family, you should spend some time with an estate planning professional to discuss these options. Having some plan in place is better than no plan and it could mean the difference of knowing that your pet will have a new home should something happen to you versus the possibility of an untimely euthanization of a healthy pet.

July 28, 1954 - November 8, 2020 A tireless advocate for all animals.