Nonprofit Web Site Addressing the Tragedy of Pets Who Lose Their Owners

The Estate Planning for Pets Foundation has launched a comprehensive, free web site to raise awareness and educate pet owners and the professional who assist them in planning for the care of their pets when they no longer can.

Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) April 30, 2004 -- According to the Delta Society, an estimated 87 percent of pet owners surveyed consider their pets to be members of the family. Yet hundreds of thousands of these family members are euthanized annually because of the death or disability of the pet owner. The Estate Planning for Pets Foundation, through its web site, http://estateplanningforpets.org, aspires to address this invisible tragedy by raising awareness and providing information.

The web site is the single most comprehensive resource on the subject of estate planning for pets, and unlike many informational" sites on the web, the use of the content is free and does not accept paid advertising. It includes a section of frequently asked questions for pet owners (http://estateplanningforpets.org/faq.htm), which includes useful tips and forms for short-term and long-term planning, a list of organizations, attorneys, and professionals to assist pet owners in the process, and a plethora of other helpful resources. The site also contains a detailed discussion of legal aspects of estate planning for pets (http://estateplanningforpets.org/legal.htm), including a primer of the various laws and planning considerations, an annotated collection of sample language for estate planning documents, an updated list of the applicable pet trust statutes, and a bibliography of other useful resources for attorneys and other professionals.

The Foundation was established to educate conscientious pet owners and the professionals who assist them with estate and disability planning," says Steven Baker, an estates and trusts attorney with Braun Becker Kruzel in Scottsdale, Arizona, who is the founder of the Foundation and author of the web site. As a conscientious pet owner, I wanted to learn more about the subject to create my own estate plan, and as an estate planner, I learned that most of my peers treated individuals who were interested in estate planning for their pets incredulously."

Since the site was first launched last November, the Foundation has received feedback from a number of pet owners, animal welfare organizations, attorneys, accountants, financial planners, and law students from across the United States. Perhaps the most common misunderstanding is the effect of the recent enactment of special pet trust statutes in a number of states and the over-reliance on these statutes without much consideration of the other planning options," says Baker. The good news is that over the last six months, the word has really spread as more and more individuals across the country are adding to the site to make it a real community effort."

The Foundation is an Arizona nonprofit corporation and a tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3).