Yup! For you pet lovers: "A woman died at peace, leaving her fortune and care of her cat to her niece. Alas, the fortune and the cat soon disappeared after that." You can make provisions in your Will for the care of your pet, but the moral of the above limerick, is that leaving your money to someone to do the job may not best the best procedure. If you are serious about caring for your pet after your death, you can employ an attorney to set up a separate trust for the care of your pet, or you can have the attorney include a trust provision in your Will. The trust document will direct the trustee to pay sufficient monies to a custodian for the care of the pet. You also need to name a beneficiary (a person or charitable organization) to receive whatever may remain in the trust after the pet dies. If you intend the trustee to also serve as custodian of the pet, then you can ask the beneficiary to regularly check on the pet to see to it that the pet is treated humanely, if not benevolently. If you don’t have the resources for this type of arrangement, other good plans might include asking a fellow pet lover to care for your pet, or possibly a family member. Another good resource might include asking your veterinarian. In any case, I find it preferable to the "all too common" practice of having the animal euthanized rather than suffer the loss of its master.
