Since the topic of pets, pet cremation, and pet death care is on the rise, we thought it would be appropriate to write a guide to all things pet related. Below you’ll find how and what you can leave a pet in your will, what you can with pet cremation, and how Willio helps you provide for your pets.
Pet death care is seeing a transformation that mirrors what has happened in human death care. Pet cremation is a quickly growing trend in the United States. This is fueled in part by the fact that pets are becoming more popular in general. The number of pet owners has increased by 11% since 1988, and today 67% of households in the United States, or 84.9 million, own one or more pets. In addition to this increase in general interest, people are also focusing more on the loss of their pets. One need only look at the high number of views of TikTok’s #petloss hashtag or the steady growth of the r/PetLoss subreddit to see that more attention is being given to the passing of our beloved furry friends.
When it comes to pet cremation specifically, the numbers are also on the rise. More and more people are searching “pet cremation near me” on Google, and according to US Jungle Scout data, pet memento products are seeing an uptick in popularity on Amazon. Wind chimes, key chains, and picture frames used to memorialize one’s pets are generating a lot of revenue. Funeral homes in America are also responding to this trend: around 15% now provide pet death care services in addition to their traditional human death care services. In fact, pet cremation is far and away the most popular burial method at the moment. Pet Loss Professional Alliance reports that 99% percent of the close to 1.9 million pet funerals that are held annually are cremations.
There are several advantages to having one’s pet cremated. Cremation is less expensive than other burial methods, such as a traditional burial in a pet cemetery or taxidermy, which can cost a few hundred dollars. The cost of getting one’s pet cremated, in contrast, averages somewhere between one and two hundred dollars. While a traditional home burial is of course free, cremation allows people to take their pets’ cremains with them wherever they go. At a time when more Americans are moving for work or other reasons, many people have decided that this mobility is well worth the cost.
Cremation also offers people a creative way to memorialize their pets. Ashes don’t have to just be put into an urn, though that remains a popular option. They can be made into diamonds, incorporated into tattoos, paintings, printed portraits, and stained glassed, and even sent into space. Cremation gives people more ways to honor their pets’ memories in ways that are unique to them.
Willio allows you to provide for your pets by:
- Appointing a Pet Guardian
A pet guardian is the person you appoint to care for your pets in the event of your death. This is usually a family friend or friend who has agreed to take care of your pet if you are unable to. You can also name a backup pet guardian in the event that the first person you name is unable to do it. You can either appoint on person to care for any and all pets you own at your death OR you can name each of your pets in your Will and pick different people to care for each pet. - Providing Financial Support to Pet Guardian to Care for Your Pet
Willio allows you to give a monetary gift to the person who you name to care for your pets. If you leave money to your pet guardian to care for your pets, you are essentially giving them this amount of money upon your death and asking that it be used for the care of your pets. You should consider the amount of this gift and make sure it makes sense with your overall estate plan. Typically a gift to care for pets would not be a substantial amount of your overall estate plan but should be enough to care for your pet. If your pet were not living at the time of your death then this gift would not be made.
