Heather Maltby is an attorney specializing in Estate Planning, which is drafting Wills and Trusts, such as Pet Trusts, and handling the probate process for clients.
She provides her clients with an easy and relaxed experience that provides them with the best results for their individual needs. Since becoming a member of the FL Bar, Heather has focused her practice solely on estate planning, guardianship and probate law. Heather provides legal counsel for individuals, families, and business owners in the creation of trusts, wills, financial and health care powers of attorney, guardianships and she assists families going through the probate process.
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Tommy DiMisa starts off the third episode of the show by emphasizing the purpose and mission of PALS- "professionals servicing communities!" He goes on by describing that the "bond between animal lovers is incredibly strong," which is why PALS mission is to build a community for these fur-baby lovers. Tommy further went on to say that PALS will try to promote the show by hosting more service and philanthropic events, as well as inviting more non-profits as future guests.
Val then chimed in, saying that being able to go back into podcasting has been one of her favorite things! She gave a little more info explaining how she came about forming PALS; she was working as a social networking events coordinator and found that amongst all the events she coordinated, the niche ones were always the best! Including, that the events generated a lot of business. Val noted "that there is a ripple effect in the communities" and how that could first-handily be seen as Tommy talked about taking his son to a service event.
Towards the end of the segment, they introduced and detailed the guest, Heather Maltby. Heather is a lawyer who specializes in estate planning, probate, and guardianship law. She is a part of the Florida Bar and practices virtually and in-person in St. John's County, Florida. Unfortunately, when she was 29, her mother passed away, and Heather's experience with the lawyer handling her case was terrible. Given the stressful experience, Heather wanted to ensure that other people would not have to struggle with the same treatment. She includes pet trusts as a service because "what happens if you die; what happens to your pet?" As someone who constantly fosters animals, Heather knows the importance of planning for a pet if something terrible were to happen to its owners.
After Tommy, "the non-profit sector connector," came back from the pause, we were able to hear a bit more of what Heather does. She said that most of her work is done remotely as only 15% of her clientele meets with her in person while the other 85% are virtual clients. Although she is a fantastic lawyer, she can only represent people in Florida, not just St. Johns County but from all over the state.
After the basic information was out of the way, Heather spoke more about the pet trust process. If an owner has designated a person to take care of their pet, the pet trust can help the pet caretaker cover essential expenses such as food and veterinary bills. That way, the "burden" doesn't fall on them. She did add that the pet caretaker could be a completely different person from the person who has access to the funds because it could be that the caretaker is great with the pet/s but may not be as savvy with money.
Heather explained a situation in which an owner does not have a designated person to care for their pet. In cases like these, owners can assign their money to an organization that will shelter their pet/s while they are in the adoption process. That way, the organization benefits from the donation while also ensuring that the person's pet goes into good hands.
After Heather shared this information, Val commented that "this" reminded her of the death of one of her neighbors. What essentially happened was that the owner did not have a pet trust established and was not prepared to die. His dogs were traumatized because they had witnessed their owner pass away and no one in his family wanted to take ownership of the pets. Val said stories like those are reasons to plan for your "fur-babies" properly.
Luna's Legacy is a non-profit organization run by a woman named Shiloh. This organization fosters cats while searching for their future homes. The organization, whose name inspiration came from a cat named Luna, who has now passed, covers medical expenses, living expenses, and all other materials the cats may need. Val explained what fostering a cat entails because she did not know until she began fostering. Both Val and Heather emphasized how the cat's socialization is vital; after all, it helps make a cat find a home or go back into the wild. Val mentioned that people do not necessarily need to be fostering a cat to do this they can go to shelters or kitty cafes to help cats socialize.Tommy, lastly, added that there is a great need for fostering and adopting cats because there are as many feral cats as there are in-door cats.
As we came back to the last segment of today's show, we made sure to answer some critical questions. One of them is, "what does a power of attorney do in a pet trust?"
Heather mentioned that a power of attorney usually applies to writing people's checks to pay bills and other essentials, but for a pet, that looks a little different. In a pet's case, a power of attorney allows the pet to get veterinary care if the pet needs so after their owner has passed away. Since a veterinarian will not perform any medical procedures if the person bringing it in does not have any say in the pet's medical matters.
Heather's firm donates 3% of its monthly earnings to help organizations like Luna's Legacy care for animals. If someone adopts a pet from Luna's Legacy, Heather's firm offers discounts to form a pet trust.
Tommy asked Heather what it takes to foster a cat. She said that it does not take a lot of space, they don't require too much attention, so they can be happy even if you play with them for just an hour, their food, litter, and all other essentials are covered by the organization. They just require a lot of pictures to be taken so that they can be adopted!
