2014

If you're looking forward to passing on the family ag operation, register now for Farm and Ranch Estate and Transition Planning workshops for important information to smooth the transition.

The workshops will cover business, family and tax issues involved in passing on the family farm or ranch, and the legal tools that are used to address these issues. Topics will include:

• the stages of succession planning, contribution and compensation;
• balancing the interests of on-farm and off-farm heirs;
• the importance of communication, setting goals, analyzing cash flow, and balancing intergenerational expectations and needs;
• beginning farmer loan and tax credit programs;
• the use of trusts, wills, life estate deeds and business entities (such as the limited liability company) in family estate and business succession planning;
• buy-sell agreements, asset protection, taxation (federal transfer taxes, Nebraska inheritance tax, basis adjustment), and essential estate documents.

The program will be presented by Dave Goeller, deputy director, Northeast Center for Risk Management Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Joe Hawbaker, agricultural law attorney with Hawbaker Law Office, Omaha.

Workshops will be held from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the following locations:

• Feb. 11, Broken Bow, Broken Bow Country Club
• Feb. 12, Mullen, Bullseye Bldg
• Feb. 24, Bridgeport, Prairie Winds Community Center
• Feb. 25, Sidney, Cheyenne County Community Center
• March 5, McCook, location TBA

For more information or to register, call the Rural Response Hotline at 1-800-464-0258. There is no charge and lunch will be provided. Registrations should be made two days in advance of the workshop you want to attend. Walk-ins will be accepted, but meals and materials are not guaranteed for unregistered participants.

These workshops are sponsored by the Nebraska Network for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, the Farm and Ranch Project of Legal Aid Nebraska, the Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture's Farm Mediation, and Nebraska Extension.