Farm Succession planning is essential to the process of passing a  farm on to the next generation as smoothly and successfully as possible. Today it is often difficult for children of farmers to take over the family farm. Farm equity is often the default retirement plan for farmers, so they need the money they have invested in it, and can’t simply give it to the next generation. And financing for the next generation wishing to buy the farm can be difficult in this era of high land values, and tight credit markets – not to mention the difficulty of beginning to make payments on a loan before ever bringing in a crop. In cases where there are multiple siblings, equitable distribution of inheritable assets can be an issue. Understanding rules related to taxes, land transfers, incorporation, etc. can be extremely important. And there are numerous interpersonal and values issues that often need to be dealt with in succession arrangements. Below we list a number of useful resources you can use to begin the planning process and make farm succession and land transfer easier: – Agweb hosts the Farm Journal Legacy Project which provides numerous resources for succession planning. Taking some … Continue reading Farm Succession Planning