Pet Care Instructions for Your Adult Children: A Perth Plan So the Dog Doesn’t End Up at a Shelter

You’re on your own in Perth — single, divorced, or widowed — and the household runs on you and a couple of animals. The kids are grown and out of the house, maybe one is in Fremantle and the other is in Melbourne or overseas. They love the dog, they like the cat, but neither of them actually knows which vet you use, what the cat is allergic to, or that you’ve already had a conversation with your sister about taking the older dog if anything happened. If you went into hospital tomorrow, none of that is written down anywhere they could find it.

The problem

Pets are routinely surrendered to shelters after an owner’s death or hospitalisation simply because no plan existed and no one could act fast enough. ASIC’s MoneySmart guidance on wills and estate planning is clear that pets are treated as personal property under Australian law — they pass through the estate like any other asset, which means a grant of probate can sit between your animals and a permanent home for weeks or months. In the meantime, someone has to feed them, medicate them, and decide.

Your adult children don’t need access to your bank accounts to handle this. They need to know: which animals you have, what each one eats and which medications they’re on, the name and phone number of your vet, who you have already asked to take them, and whether that person has actually agreed. Without that, the default outcome — a stressed phone call to a shelter — is the one that happens.

What the Asset Instruction Vault does

The Digital Legacy Vault is an instructions register: you record what exists, where to find it, and who should be told. The simplified version (built for individuals and families) records, per animal: name, species and breed, age, daily feeding and exercise routine, current medications and dosages, vet clinic name and phone number, microchip number, and the named carer who has agreed to take them. It also stores any bequest you’ve already arranged — for example, a sum set aside in your will for the carer to cover food and vet bills. Your adult children see the pet care module, only when you’ve released it.

The boundary matters: the Digital Legacy Vault is not a financial product, not a custody service, and not an advice service. It’s an instructions register. That keeps it outside the AFSL regime and outside AUSTRAC reporting — and it means a pet care module is exactly what it sounds like, not a regulated trust arrangement.

How it works

  1. You add each animal to your vault — name, vet, food, medication, routine, microchip.
  2. You name the intended carer (your sister, a friend, a neighbour) and the vault records their consent so your children know it’s a real arrangement, not a wish.
  3. You name your adult children as recipients of the pet care module so they can act immediately if you’re hospitalised or worse.
  4. If something happens, your children are notified per your release rules and see the pet care instructions — the vet’s phone number, the carer’s phone number, today’s feeding schedule.
  5. Your children call the carer and the vet directly. The animals move once, not three times, and not through a shelter intake.

Why this matters in Perth

Perth’s geography makes this sharper than most Australian cities. Adult children of Perth parents are often interstate or overseas — a four- or five-hour flight away on short notice — and the people who can physically be at your house within an hour are usually neighbours, friends, or siblings rather than family. That gap is exactly where pets get surrendered: the children can’t get there, the neighbours don’t know the vet, and the cat with thyroid medication misses three doses before anyone realises. A simple instruction module — carer named and consented, vet on speed dial, medications written down — closes that gap before it opens.

Sources

Join the waitlist

Join the waitlist — first access when the Digital Legacy Vault opens for Perth individuals

We’re opening waitlist access in tranches. Sign up to be notified when individuals in Perth can register their first pet care module. The Digital Legacy Vault holds instructions about what your animals need and who has agreed to take them — not the animals themselves, and not a substitute for the conversation you should have with the carer before you write their name down.