Farm Law and Ag Law Blog

  (Authors’ Note :   This will be a several part series discussing why the current method of farm estate and succession planning is not working)  This is part 3 of a 5-part series regarding the authors’ view that farm estate planning in this country is broken and needs fixed, especially in light of “Farm Estate Armageddon” that will happen this decade when ¼ of all farmers retire and 2/3 of all farmers will be over the age of 65.   Past articles can be viewed at www.farmlegacy.blogspot.com .               Why is farm estate planning so much different than other businesses?   Well, to answer that question, we need to break down and compare farming, in general, to other businesses. Perhaps one of the most glaring differences between farming and other businesses is that farming is an “asset heavy-income light” profession.   Two years ago, before we had a rebound in grain prices, I asked a lender...

     Part II-Reasons Plans Do Not Get Established.   (Authors’ Note :   This will be a several part series discussing why the current method of farm estate and succession planning is not working)  Last month we discussed the fact that statistics show that in the past 10 years, there really has not been much in the form of improvement as to estate and succession plans being created by farmers.      Overall, 75% of farms in the country do not have a succession plan, and that number is roughly the same from ten years ago.   Probably a good follow up analysis, which I have never seen anyone perform, is of the 25% of farms that do have a succession plan, what percentage of those are successful? Continuing our march towards identifying what is wrong with farm succession planning and how to fix it, we need to first look at the upcoming “farmestateaggeddon” that will happen this decade.   According to USDA data, a whopping one-...