Pet Legacy Planning
Coming soonWhen you are thinking about your will or your estate, one of the hardest questions is also one of the most important: what happens to your pet? Pawsettle helps you work that out clearly, document it properly, and produce the right document for every person who needs it.
A Letter of Instruction for your legal adviser
A Care Wishes Document for the person taking over your pet
Both from one builder. Both ready to use.
The person handling your estate and the person caring for your pet need very different things. Pawsettle produces both from the same builder session.
Letter of Instruction
For your legal adviser or the person handling your estate
Not a will. Not a legal instrument. A clear statement of your wishes that your legal adviser can act on.
Care Wishes Document
For the person taking over your pet's daily care
Draws from your existing Pawsettle records: actual care costs, real health events and stored documents.
Most people go to a solicitor or estate planner with a vague sense of what they want for their pet. A completed Letter of Instruction gives your legal adviser a clear, written brief to work from. The conversation is faster and the outcome is better.
The Care Wishes Document tells the person taking over your pet how to care for them: routine, veterinary contacts, behavioural notes, treatment preferences and your personal handover notes. Clear, complete and immediately actionable.
Your chosen carer may change. Your pet's health needs change. The plan is designed to be reviewed and updated, with version history so you always know what the latest version says and when it was confirmed.
Each time you review and confirm the plan, a dated snapshot is stored. If you are working with a legal professional on your estate, that snapshot gives them a contemporaneous record of your wishes at a specific point in time, not just a document with no date attached to it.
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Your pet's profile, care notes, veterinary details and health records pre-fill into the plan automatically. You confirm, update and extend rather than starting from scratch.
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The builder walks you through your wishes: your chosen carer, financial intentions, succession logic, daily care detail, health and treatment preferences and handover instructions. One session. Both documents.
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The Letter of Instruction goes to your legal adviser. The Care Wishes Document goes to the person taking over your pet. Both come from the same builder. Both are ready to use.
When you are making or updating your will, your legal adviser needs to know what you want for your pet. Most people go to that conversation with a name and a hope. A completed Letter of Instruction gives them a written brief with your nominee named, your succession logic clear and your financial intentions stated.
In countries where formal pet trusts are legally recognised, your legal adviser can use the Letter of Instruction to draft the relevant provisions. In countries where they are not, it creates a clear record of your wishes that the person handling your estate can choose to honour.
Pawsettle does not write a will. It does not provide legal advice. It helps you know what you want to say, so that when you sit down with a legal professional, you arrive prepared and the conversation is about making your wishes formal, not working out what they are.
Each time you review and confirm your plan, a dated snapshot is stored. If your legal adviser asks when your wishes were last confirmed, you have a precise answer and a record to show them.
What a will can say about your pet
A will can name who receives your pet and leave money to that person with a wish that it be used for the pet's care. It cannot tell that person how to feed them, who the vet is, what they are afraid of, or what your wishes are around treatment.
The Letter of Instruction and the Care Wishes Document fill that gap. Together they give the legal process a clear brief and the person taking over a complete guide.
The legal framework for pet provisions in wills varies by country. A Pawsettle Legacy plan is useful in every market, because the need to document your wishes clearly does not depend on the legal mechanism available to honour them.
Most people who make a Legacy plan are not facing an immediate crisis. They are people who love their pet and want to be prepared. But the plan is also built for the moments when preparation was not possible.
The most common moment people think about their pet's future is when they are reviewing their estate. A completed Letter of Instruction gives your legal adviser exactly what they need to advise you properly on pet provisions, and a Care Wishes Document ensures the practical detail is documented too.
You do not need to be in the middle of formal estate planning to make a Legacy plan. Many people create one because they want the people around them to have everything they need if the unexpected happens, and they want their own wishes documented clearly while they can still state them.
A diagnosis, a hospitalisation, a sudden change in circumstances. If you need something in place quickly, the plan captures the most critical care information first and produces a Care Wishes Document that can be shared with a family member or temporary carer the same day.
If you have inherited responsibility for a pet and received a Care Wishes Document from the previous owner's estate, you already know how useful one can be. Pawsettle lets you create your own, so the people around you have the same clarity if something happens to you.
The person you have chosen to take over your pet should not find out at the worst possible moment. Pawsettle lets you invite your nominated carer to view a summary of the plan and confirm they are willing and able to take on the responsibility.
Their response is timestamped and stored. It is referenced in both your Letter of Instruction and your Care Wishes Document. It is not a legal obligation. It is a record that the conversation happened, that they understood what they were agreeing to, and that they said yes.
You nominate a successor carer in your Legacy plan.
Pawsettle sends them a summary of what taking over would involve.
They confirm or decline. Their response is stored with a timestamp.
Their confirmation is recorded in both your Letter of Instruction and your Care Wishes Document.
Pet legacy planning is in development. If you already use Pawsettle, you will be the first to know when it is ready. If you are new, create a free account and we will let you know at launch.
Pawsettle is not a legal service. The Letter of Instruction is a statement of wishes, not a will, a trust or a legally binding document. The Care Wishes Document is a planning record and handover guide. Both require a qualified legal adviser or estate planning professional to give your wishes formal legal standing.