Published in All About Estates
by Sandra L. Pierce on April 15th, 2024
A BMO Estate Planning survey, “Estate planning for complex family dynamics,” revealed that, of respondents who indicated they had made some kind of arrangement for their pet, only two in five had chosen to provide a monetary legacy to cover the cost of pet care after they died.
Without financial support, the next-door neighbour or relative you’re relying on to take care of FIDO may not be able to do so as the pet ages. The most significant costs of pet care come in the pet’s senior years – medication and even surgery can be prohibitively expensive for somebody to take on simply as a favour to you.
Estate planning is not the most popular topic of conversation. However, your family pet and family members deserve a well thought out transition plan. Doing so will not only help protect what, and who, matters most to you by creating an efficient wealth transfer, it will also ease the burden on your loved ones. Things may be very messy if you don’t plan ahead.
Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny, and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do our children.
Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse
