succession planning

Succession planning is an important concern for farming families.

Passing down your family farm and your farming business requires much more planning than the typical business transfer because farming is more than a business - it is a lifestyle. What’s more, it is a lifestyle undergoing dramatic change as economic pressures transform agriculture.

As a farmer you have many, often conflicting, goals for you and your family. Here are a few examples of fairly typical objectives:

• To give members of the next generation an opportunity to come into the business
• To maintain the farm as a viable, economic unit capable of supporting the needs of two (even three) generations
• To treat all children fairly (even if it is impossible to treat them equally.)
• To keep the farm in the family
• To provide adequately for the older generation during retirement (which they might be planning to spend living on the farm)

These objectives present unique challenges and achieving them all can be a tall order. Although the challenges are different the planning process is the same.

Anne Elliott is an agricultural expert with a special interest in succession planning. Anne has extensive experience of the issues you will need to consider to put your affairs in order and secure peace of mind.