Nashville Estate Administration Law Blog

When creating an estate plan, you'll spend most your time thinking about what will happen to your assets, such as your home and bank accounts, after your death.

While it's important to focus on these things, you also need to think about your health and well-being while you are alive. And this is where a living will comes into play.

The billionaire cryptocurrency investor Matthew Mellon was found dead at a hotel room in Cancun only a day before he was supposed to check into a drug rehab facility. The facility said that the man arrived in Cancun with an entourage on a private plane last Sunday, but he never made it to the rehab center.

Reports indicate that Mellon checked into a Cancun hotel the night before he was scheduled to report to the rehab facility, Clear Sky Recovery. However, he was found dead at his hotel the following morning on April 16. Mellon had intended to use the controversial ibogaine drug in his addiction therapy. Ibogaine is banned in the United States.

Although many people are shutting down their social media accounts in the wake of the recent Facebook scandal, the majority of people have continued their online presence. However, the way we use digital accounts is not only related to social media.

Most of us also have online banking accounts, online digital storage accounts and some of us even have cryptocurrency coins worth thousands of dollars in cryptographic and online blockchain wallets.

According to Tennessee trust laws, animal lovers can use a trust to pay for the care of their animals after they have passed away. These so-called "pet trusts" terminate when the animal dies, or -- in cases where the trust offers care to more than one animal -- the trust terminates when the last surviving animal dies. These trusts, however, may not last longer than 90 years.

Here are some of the provisions included in Tennessee's "pet trust" law:

• Animal owners can create a pet trust to care for an animal or multiple animals for up to 90 years. The trust will terminate upon the death of the last surviving animal associated with the trust.
• The following individuals can enforce the terms of the pet trust so long as the trust has appointed them: a trust protector, a trust advisor or other individuals appointed by the trust. If no person has been appointed, the court will do so.
• Individuals who are interested in the well-being of the animals covered by the trust can petition the court to remove a specifically appointed person and appoint a new person to enforce the trust terms.
• The property held inside a pet trust may only be used as the trust intends it to be used, unless the trust property has a value that goes beyond its intended use. In such a case, the extra property will be distributed to the successors of the trust creator.