Pet Estate Planning: It's Easier than Ever to Include Your Pets in Your Estate Plan (Chicago Tribune)

Making estate-planning arrangements for pets is getting easier. Nearly every state in the U.S. has passed laws that allow owners to pass on assets to their pets. Animal law is now one of the fastest-growing legal specialties, according to the American Bar Association. “The tempo of inquiries and the number of actual executed pet trusts has increased in the last couple of years,” said Michael Fitzgerald, a lawyer with a firm that has worked on pet trusts. Setting up an estate plan can cost $500 to $3,000 or more depending on its complexity, according to Todd Cordell, vice president of Chicago Trust Co. He said adding a pet provision should be little to no extra cost.