Traditional Method of Farm Succession Planning is Broken…. Here is How to Fix it.
Part I-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. In this first part, we will discuss the current state of farm succession and estate planning and compare to where it was ten years ago) After several years of the farm economy in the doldrums, that past 2 years have seen a reassurance leading to record land and machinery prices, as well as just about everything else. Prior to this, many farms were not even sure they would survive long enough to need a succession plan. Now, we’ve returned to where we were around 2009, 2010, and 2011, when the size of farm estates grew greatly and made it very difficult, if not impossible, for farming heirs to buy out non farming heirs due to the large capital outlay. With land and machinery at all times highs, the difficulty is even now more profound. The