studying for the Bar Exam

I’ve been work­ing on Wills and Trusts today.  I won’t have much time to read tomor­row, so I actu­al­ly read ahead…  And I had a thought.  Trusts for ani­mals (pets) are exempt from the Rule Against Per­pe­tu­ities, at least in Mis­souri, and they last for the life of the ani­mal, or the last sur­viv­ing ani­mal if the trust is for more than one ani­mal.

When I took Estates and Trusts (one class) in law school, my friend and I had talked about ways to get into the case­book, whether by nam­ing our chil­dren C1, C2, C3, and so forth, or by cre­at­ing an excep­tion­al­ly com­pli­cat­ed will with all sorts of pro­ce­dur­al prob­lems.  What I want to do is adopt some ani­mal with a long lifes­pan, like a tur­tle or a lake stur­geon, then put a mas­sive amount of mon­ey into a trust for said ani­mal, and then watch from my cloud while the lit­i­ga­tion ensues after I die.  I fig­ure some­one will make the Rule Against Per­pe­tu­ities argu­ment, espe­cial­ly since it’s for such a long time, and there will be an issue of what a pet actu­al­ly is, and the trustee will be com­plete­ly greedy and breach fidu­cia­ry duties.  It will be fun.

Is it bad that when I study, I think about ways to get around the law?  Don’t wor­ry, I won’t be break­ing any laws know­ing­ly or will­ing­ly.

Comments are closed.