Farm Estate GPS

Do you remember hearing sayings as a kid, and you really didn’t know what they meant? Then later in life you figured it out? Well right now, I’m thinking “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!” By now, many of you have heard of some of the proposed tax law changes and...

There are less and less things I enjoy watching on TV, but occasionally I enjoy watching Shark Tank. For those who are not familiar with the TV show, the general concept is people bring their product, or business into the “Shark Tank”. The Sharks are some very...

One of the key ingredients to farm estate planning is working directly with the decision makers. Usually the decision makers are the ones who own the underlying assets. Yet every year I get multiple calls from the decision takers (the children) who are frustrated with...

Do you want to know an interesting fact? It’s often easier to do the farm succession planning when you know one of the kids will sell their land someday. At least it’s known. But then there are times when parents say, “I don’t know if he will sell or not. He’s rather...

It seems like we spend most of the time in estate planning determining “who is getting what.” After several meetings and some number crunching, the difficult decisions get made and there’s an agreement in principle about how the family wants things to happen. Then the...

Working with families and their attorneys is one of the most interesting aspects of my job. We rarely have input as to which attorney we are working with unless the client asks. Regardless, we always prepare an agenda and organize the critical information for a very...