Comments on: Estate Planning: Providing for Your Pet’s Future

By: Resolve to Be a Responsible Pet Owner « Fur the Love of Pets

Resolve to Be a Responsible Pet Owner « Fur the Love of Pets — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:41:59 +0000

[...] you prepare for your family’s future. Assemble a “go bag” for your pet. Include your pet in estate planning; don’t assume your family is prepared to add your pet to their household and make provisions for [...]

By: Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:50:27 +0000

Rachel,
Thank you so much for correcting the confusion. I think I may have said in the interview that the funds in a pet protection agreement may be invaded by the guardian’s creditors. If I am wrong again I stand corrected. I am very glad Rachel, who wrote the book seminal book Petriarch on Pet Trusts and Pet Protection Agreements helped get the appropriate information out to Dr. Hohenhaus’s readers. Rachel is setting the record straight.

I approach this matter as a pet conflict mediator, not a trust expert. I thank Rachel for making sure everything reflected in Dr. Honhenhaus is accurate.

By: Rachel Hirschfeld, Attorney

Rachel Hirschfeld, Attorney — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:46:59 +0000

Dear Editor:
I just read an article that mentioned the Pet Protection Agreement® by a woman I know. But what she said gives me pause (paws-haha). She gave an interview and said the following:

“A pet protection agreement does not require a lawyer and one can be found on the Internet. This document allows you to specify a guardian and a successor with individual agreements for those who will be providing care to your pet. The money set aside by a pet protection agreement can be taken by your creditors or more easily challenged by family members since no attorney is involved in setting up a pet protection agreement. Even so, this type of document is better than having no agreement at all.”

As a matter of fact, there are thousands of Pet Protection Agreements® and no Pet Protection Agreement® has ever been overturned by family members or anyone else! They are sound and cannot be taken by creditors! On the other hand, pet trusts are regularly overturned by family and creditors. One clear example of a pet trust that was taken by creditors, trustees and family members is the Helmsely trust for her pet. It was written by a real estate attorney who did not know the law protecting pets’ ongoing care, burial and family issues. On the other hand, if a pet owner fills in the Pet Protection Agreement® on LegalZoom.com s/he can be assured that neither a family member nor anyone else will break it or be able to steal from it – Pet Protection Agreements® are sound.”

Rachel Hirschfeld
Co-chair, Animal Law Committee of the New York County Lawyer’s Association