• 17
  • August
    2011

In the United States, pets have been able to legally inherit since 1923. Recently, this topic has been in the news because Trouble, the Maltese dog who was bequeathed $12 million from his owner Leona Helmsley in her estate plan, has died.

Billionaire hotel operator Leona Helmsley died in 2007, leaving $12 million to her beloved companion, Trouble, but a probate judge reduced the amount to $2 million and directed that the remainder be transferred to her charitable trust. Further complications arose recently when Trouble died. Helmsley had wished for her pet to be laid to rest with her, but that is not allowed. Under New York law, animals may not be buried in cemeteries for humans.

Although the probate judge determined that it would have been Helmsley's wish for the proceeds of her charitable trust go to animal welfare, he overturned her wishes and said that the trustees could distribute the trust to charities of their choice.

The decision to ignore a decedent's wishes seems contrary to the tradition of probate law, which tries to take into the account the intent of the decedent above all else. Probate judges rarely go against the decedent's wishes unless the terms of the will are ambiguous or illegal.

The judge's decision is a cause for concern, according to Washington University Law Professor Adrienne Davis, who is calling for reform to the treatment of pet trusts and inheritances. She supports a proposal that would extend the charitable remainder tax deduction to pet trusts. Additionally, other proposed reforms would make it easier to leave to a pet's progeny.

Professor Frances Foster, also at Washington University, echoes the sentiments of Professor Davis. She thinks American inheritance law has stagnated at an outdated family paradigm. The paradigm assumes that a decedent's closest relatives by blood, adoption or marriage are the most deserving recipients of the decedent's estate.

Between 12 and 27 percent of pet owners provide for their pets through estate planning. Closeness in life has increasingly come to mean closeness after death, both in society and in estate planning. It is no longer considered all that unusual for that closeness to result in man's best friend being the beneficiary of a will. Should probate judges be free to discount the wishes of pet owners?

Source: Reuters, "Pitfalls of bequeathing money to pampered pets," Bernd Debusmann Jr., Aug. 15, 2011