A trust may be created by Arizona Trust Code A.R.S § 14-10408 for an animal to provide for the care of the animal if the owner becomes incapacitated or passes away. It allows the naming of a care giver to provide day-to-day care for the pet and a trustee to manage and distribute funds. You can specify care instructions such as grooming, veterinary treatment, and routine.

· Since Arizona treats pets as property the animal is not legally a beneficiary in the same way as a human or charity is with estate planning. Instead a Pet Trust is used for the animal's care and funds are not left directly to the pet.

· It is permissible to have a Pet Trust that provides for several pets.

· Specific pets do not need to be named in the Pet Trust. This helps in the situation additional pets are obtained after the Pet Trust is created.

· Benefits of a Pet Trust include:

· The creator (Settlor) of the Pet Trust does not need to be deceased.

· Do not need to wait for Probate to enforce

· Can crate specific care giving instructions

· Can provide compensation to the caregiver

· Insturctions for disposition of remains

· List remainder beneficiary