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All My Children Wear Fur Coats -
How to Leave a Legacy for Your Pet

Chapter Overview

By Peggy R. Hoyt JD, MBA, B.C.S.*
*Florida Board Certified in Wills, Trusts and Estates
©2002 -2010 LegacyForYourPet.com (all rights reserved)

 

Chapter One: Pet Ownership in America

  • Informative statitstics about pet ownership in America today
  • The importance of estate planning to create a legacy for your pet

Chapter Two: Planning for Your Pet’s Future

  • Three ways to create a Written Action Plan to protect your pets if something happens to you
  • How to make more-than-sure someone will love and care for your pet, if you become incapacitated or die
  • Problems with traditional estate planning
  • Utilizing the Estate Plannning Pyramid to plan and protect your entire estate
  • Four types of change that create problems for estate plans
  • The Estate Planning Solution
  • Four easy steps to create an estate plan that works
  • The importance of the team approach
  • Four types of change that create problems for estate plans
  • Selecting and engaging pet caregivers for the long-term care of your pet
  • What your pet estate plan should include, from the health history of your pet to appropriate veterinary contacts…and much more
  • Step-by-step instructions on how to create an estate plan that includes your pets
  • Using decals and pet alert cards to prepare for dire emergencies
  • Utilizing the Estate Planning Pyramid™ to plan for and protect your entire estate
  • Three steps that ensure your estate plan will care for all of your loved ones – especially your pets

Chapter Three: Your Pets and Disasters

  • Creating an evacuation plan to protect your pets
  • Alternatives and resources to evacuating with your pets
  • Addressing the special needs for horses and large animals

Chapter Four: Planning for Disability

  • Did you know?  A will provides no protection for your pets in the event of disability
  • Techniques to plan for disability - don't run the risk that your pet is not protected
  • Avoiding guardianship and the perils of guardianships for pets
  • Understanding Powers of Attorney for decision making
  • Six things you must know about Powers of Attorney for maximum effectiveness
  • The difference between Financial Powers of Attorney and Healthcare Directives - why you need both
  • What you need to know about Living Wills - they aren't living and they aren't wills
  • Health Information Portability and Accountabilitiy Act (HIPAA) - its importance in your estate plan
  • Safekeeping your disability directives
  • Preneed Guardian Declarations - can they protect you?
  • Using Trusts to avoid guardianship and protect your pets

Chapter Five: Planning for Death

  • Wills vs. Trusts - an age old dilemma
  • Estate planning challenges - understanding the importance of title in creating plans that work
  • Understand the pitfalls of both wills and trusts
  • Appropriate ways to use lifetime gifts, testamentary gifts, charitable trusts…unique ways to create an enduring legacy for your pet
  • How a charitable remainder trust benefits those you love as well as your favorite charities
  • Learn the tax implications and consequences of your decision to use a charitable trust as part of your legacy plan
  • How private foundations can help you create an immortal legacy for your pet
  • Using a supporting organization to leave a hallmark legacy for your pet
  • How charitable gift annuities can provide increased income for you and your pet during your lifetime

Chapter Six: Estate Planning and Pets

  • Why a pet cannot inherit your estate
  • Power of Attorney provisions for protecting your pets in the event of disability
  • Why trusts can provide protection for a pet not available with a will
  • Ways to provide for your pets - outright distibution or trusts for added protection
  • Trusts and pets - an ongoing challenge.  The laws are in a state of change
  • Federal obstacles to creating a plan for your pet
  • Figuring out what to do with your money - what's the best way to leave money for your pet?
  • The importance of written instructions

Chapter Seven: Planning for Your Pet

  • Creating a rock solid estate plan in the event of your disability or death
  • The size of your estate is immaterial, your desire to provide a comprehensive estate plan and legacy for your pet is paramount
  • Creating a Pet Plan that works!
  • Your Pet Planning Partners - how to identify them
  • Investing in your estate plan
  • Pet Plan design components - making the most of your Pet Plan
  • Distributing assets for your pets - who's in charge of the money?
  • People who are critical to protecting your pets
  • Trustees and other fiduciaries - what's a fiduciary?
  • Pet Caregivers - the importance of identifying more than one
  • Your Animal Care Panel - the people you trust for the pet you love
  • Who gets what's left - Remainder Beneficiaries and avoiding future lawsuits
  • Other important issues - identifying your pet, pet inspections
  • Special considerations for pets with long lives
  • Finding an attorney who understands estate planning and the sensitive issues that surround pet involvement in estate planning
  • Why you absolutely need an attorney to help you create an estate plan
  • Key questions you must ask your estate planning attorney during your first visit and what to expect from him or her
  • What you should do about your estate plan if you think you cannot afford an attorney
  • Tapping into the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys puts you in touch with over 1,000 nationally recognized estate planning attorneys

Chapter Eight: Animal Care Organizations

  • Selecting the righ long-term care facility is critical to the future well-being of your pet
  • Knowing which organizations actually care for your pet and which provide "foster homes"
  • Taking a careful look at how perpetual care organizations determine costs and benefits
  • Making certain your funds will not run out to care for your pet during your pet's lifetime
  • Discover how local veterinary colleges can be enlisted as a practical, low-cost future long term care alternative for your pet
  • An exhaustive checklist for selecting a long-term care facility fo ryour pet - from human interaction levels to facility care options - you must select the right facility to feel secure
  • Potential dangerous pitfalls and sound legal guidelines to consdier when entering into a perpetual care contract with a long-term care provider
  • Animal Charities - selecting the right one
  • Charity Evaluation Checklist
  • Charitable organization resources
  • Finding the right way for you to remember your pet
  • Learn the most meaningful ways to make a special statement about your love for your pet
  • Ways to find comfort – useful ideas that can make you feel your departed pet is close and safe
  • Pet burial and cremation options – choosing the right one for you may help you cope better after the loss of your pet – how choosing the wrong one may make things worse for you

Chapter Nine: Charitable Giving Techniques

  • The importance and benefits of lifetime gifts
  • Making testamentary gifts count
  • An introduction to charitable trusts
  • Charitable Remainder Trusts
  • Charitable Lead Trusts
  • Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (Wealth Replacement Trusts)
  • Private (Family) Foundations
  • Supporting Organizations
  • Donor Advised Funds
  • Pooled Income Funds
  • Charitable Gift Annuities
  • Remainder Pet Trusts - is this possible?
  • Tax Implications - considering the tax implications
  • Trust Administration - can you trust your trust?

Chapter Ten: Attorneys, Fiduciaries and Other Scary People

  • Choosing an Estate Planning Attorney
  • What is an attorney? 
  • Why you need an attorney and shouldn't do this on your own
  • Questions for interviewing attorney candidates
  • Getting the most out of your relationship with your attorney
  • Other trusted professionals - corporate trustees,

Chapter Eleven: Ways to Memorializ Your Pet

  • Eight unique ways to remember your special pet
  • Pet burial and cremation

Chapter Twelve:  Pet Loss and Grief

  • Cathartic ways to say good-bye to your pet – how to gain maximum closure through this painful time
  • Understanding what your pet experiences during euthanasia can helps you cope
  • The four stages of grief and dealing with the deep sense of pain that accompanies the loss of your pet
  • Remembering your pet and accepting death as a part of the cycle of life
  • The four vital steps for coping with the loss of your pet
  • Should a healthy pet ever be euthanized? How to deal with this difficult decision...
  • Making the euthanasia decision - the most difficult decision you may ever face - knowing when it is timeWhat to say to family and friends – especially young children – about the death of a pet

Chapter Thirteen: Pet Memories and Stories

  • Interesting stories and quotes that inspire, touch the soul and bring comfort

Legacy Planning Partners, LLC

THE LAW OFFICES OF HOYT AND BRYAN, LLC
254 Plaza Drive
Oviedo, FL 32765
407-977-8080 - phone
407-977-8078 - fax
info@legacyforyourpet.com