The first full week of May is designated as National Pet Week in the United States. There are a number of ways you can help celebrate and bring attention to the needs of pets during the celebratory week. If you have a pet that you consider part of the family, National Pet Week is also a great time to sit down with your estate planning attorney and incorporate your pet into your estate plan if you have yet to do so. Doing so ensures that your pet will not be overlooked if something happens to you in the future. National [Read more…]

One way, among many, that Americans stand out is in our relationship with animals. In the United States, we consider our domestic animals to be part of the family. Consequently, we own more dogs and cats than any other country. We also spend a small fortune each year on taking care of, and often spoiling, our non-human family members. If you have a pet in your family, Animal Safety and Prevention Month, held each October, is a great time to incorporate pet planning into your estate plan to ensure your pet is taken care of should anything happen to you. [Read more…]

For the average person, the primary goal of estate planning is ensuring that family members are provided for in the event of death or disability. If that describes your number one reason for having an estate plan in place, ask yourself if you have included all of your family in that plan? How could you possibly forget a member of your family, you may be wondering. If you have a beloved pet that you consider part of the family, you may very well have failed to include Fido in your existing estate plan because you didn’t realize you could do [Read more…]