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.
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