Estate Planning for Pets? 3 Famous Pet Inheritance Stories

Takeaways

• Pet trusts are legal tools that provide for the care of pets after their owners’ deaths.
• A pet trust includes a trustee – someone to manage the money set aside for the pet’s care – and a caretaker who would be responsible for the pet’s day-to-day needs.
• Pet trusts ensure that your beloved companion animals are not left without care or abandoned after your death.

You may consider pet trusts little more than eccentric things that famous people create for their pets when they have too much money. Yet pet trusts have become much more mainstream in recent years. In fact, in 2016, Minnesota became the 50th state to recognize the legality of pet trusts.

Pet trusts can be an important part of the estate planning process, especially for those with furry family members. This process involves creating a plan to protect both the things you own and the individuals that are important to you. Traditional estate planning conversations often focus on providing for one’s surviving spouse, children, and grandchildren. However, many pet parents wonder what could happen to their “furry children” after their death.

What Is a Pet Trust and How Does It Work?

A pet trust is a tool that you can easily incorporate into a new or existing estate plan to provide a strategy for your pet’s care. You may expect to outlive your pets, but it is always better to have a plan in place for the unexpected

In establishing a pet trust, you must first determine the amount of money you want to dedicate for your pet’s care. When the pet trust becomes active (upon your death or your spouse’s death) and while your pet is alive, a trustee will manage the money you have set aside for your pet’s benefit, which means you must select an individual you trust to serve as trustee.

Second, you must decide on a caretaker who will have custody and responsibility for your pet’s care. This may or may not be the same person you select to serve as trustee. You will also have to make a decision about  what will happen with any remaining money in the trust after your pet’s death. This money can be left to an individual, charitable cause, or an organization.

What a Pet Trust Avoids

If you die without a plan in place for your beloved pet, they may be overlooked, abandoned, or surrendered to a local shelter.

A pet trust is a legal tool that can be put into place to ensure that your dog, cat, or other companion animal receives care even if you are no longer there to provide it and provides the financial support to do so. Proactively including a pet trust in your plan is especially important when you have family members who may be unable or unwilling to care for your beloved pets.

However, unbeknownst to many pet owners, a pet trust may not reflect their wishes precisely. Consider three famous pet trust cases and consider the lessons you can learn so your furry family members can be protected through your plan.

Leona Helmsley and Trouble

Leona Helmsley, a famous hotelier and convicted tax evader, passed away in 2007. In her will, she awarded her Maltese dog, Trouble, a trust fund valued at $12 million and left nothing to her two grandchildren.

However, the probate judge did not think much of Helmsley’s logic. They knocked Trouble’s portion down to $2 million, awarded $6 million to her two grandchildren, and ordered that the remainder of the trust go to charity. Trouble was supposed to be buried in the family mausoleum when she died. However, when the cemetery refused to accept a dog, Trouble was cremated instead.

Lessons Learned

Leaving an extravagant sum to a pet may not be honored in the event of a lawsuit or if your plan becomes contested and can cause family conflict. Consider leaving an amount that is reasonable for providing for the care and lifestyle that your pet is accustomed to. Create a monthly or annual budget to see what it would cost to provide for your pet for the rest of its expected lifespan.

Regardless of whether you are creating a pet trust, if you are planning to disinherit a family member, be sure to work with your attorney to ensure that your plan to exclude your family member is as legally solid as possible.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles the Chimp

Many Michael Jackson fans may remember his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles, the King of Pop’s constant companion. In his will, Jackson reportedly left the chimp an inheritance of $2 million. Bubbles, who is still alive as of 2025, resides in a shelter in Florida. Some have speculated about who has been paying for his care in the sanctuary, with reports suggesting that Jackson’s estate is covering the costs.

Lessons Learned

Using a trust as part of your estate plan can help prevent prying eyes from knowing the intimate details of your affairs and can allow you to provide ongoing support for the things or individuals that matter most to you, whether that be an individual or a furry loved one.

Karla Liebenstein’s German Shepherd

German countess Karla Liebenstein allegedly left her entire fortune, valued at more than $60 million, to her German Shepherd, Gunther III. The fortune has increased in value over time — to about $400 million — and has subsequently been passed down to Gunther VI, also a German Shepherd.

Some suspect that the story of this pet inheritance is a hoax, although Netflix did release a docuseries about the “richest dog in the world” that adds fodder to the legend.

Lessons Learned

Pet trust benefits can be utilized to benefit multiple generations of your pets, multiple pets, or even future pets, so make sure your estate plan reflects your actual wishes and intentions about any subsequent pets.

Who Should Be Part of a Pet Trust?

Getting your pet planning in order is a reasonably straightforward process. A pet trust involves the following:

• Grantor. Also known as a settlor or trustmaker, this is the individual who is establishing the pet trust for their companion animal.
• Trustee. The trustee is the individual you select to manage the money or property in the pet trust.
• Beneficiaries. This is the person or charity you choose to receive whatever money and property is left after the pet passes away.

Four Decisions to Make

In the case of a pet trust, you will need to make four decisions to ensure that everything works as you intend:

1. Select a caretaker for your companion animal

Think of this role as similar to the guardian of minor children. This will be the person who cares for your pet if you are no longer able to do so.

You can leave detailed instructions or general recommendations for your pet’s care, whichever works best for your pet’s situation. You can even opt to set a certain amount of money aside to compensate your pet's caretaker.

2. Select the trustee for the pet trust

The trustee is the trusted decision-maker you select to ensure that the money you have set aside in the pet trust will be used according to your instructions. The trustee is often authorized to provide money to the caretaker for supplies, vet visits, vaccinations, medications, toys, or whatever else you specify in the agreement.

3. Decide on the amount you want to set aside

There are multiple methods for determining how much to set aside for the care of your pet. Some people estimate the expected cost of caring for their pet over the pet’s expected lifespan and leave that amount, plus a little extra. With this approach, the sole goal is to provide for the pet’s ongoing care and maintenance. Others decide to establish the pet trust with enough funds to not only care for their pet but also to provide leftover funds to support an eventual charitable goal (e.g., to leave money to a local animal shelter).

Many pet parents allocate a large sum of money with the expectation that money will be left over upon the pet’s passing. Determining how much to set aside centers on the ultimate long-term goal you are trying to achieve through pet trust planning. You can always update the amount as your and your pet’s circumstances change.

4. Select the trust’s contingent beneficiaries

Contingent beneficiaries will receive any money and property remaining in the trust after the pet has passed away. Some people choose to leave the remaining funds to a favorite charity, while others add whatever is left to a children’s or grandchildren’s trust.

You can even designate a specific person or group of people to receive remaining funds outright. The options are many, and you can work with an estate planner to tailor the plan to match your specific goals.

Protect All of Your Loved Ones With a Tailored Estate Plan

You may assume that you will outlive your pets, so why bother creating this type of trust? The entire purpose of creating an estate plan is to ensure that your wishes are honored and that your whole family — including your feathered, furry, or scaly loved ones — will be protected.

If you have not yet included arrangements for your beloved pet in your estate plan, contact us. We can assist you in adding a pet trust to your current plan and help you establish other important estate planning documents if you have not yet done so. A comprehensive estate plan includes everything you need to protect what — and who — matters most to you, whatever your circumstances.

For further reading about other important estate planning documents, tools, and processes, check out the following articles:

• Transfer-on-Death Accounts: A Useful Estate Planning Tool
• The Probate Process: A General Timeline
• Make Sure Your Beneficiary Designations Match Your Estate Plan
• Can a Medical Power of Attorney Get Information From a Financial Power of Attorney?
• A Useless Power of Attorney: Avoid Free Legal Documents
• Benefits of Life Insurance as Part of Your Estate Plan