Sept. 2, 2015

• How do you pass your farm on to the one child who wants to farm, while treating all of your children fairly?
• If children are already contributing to the success of your business, how should they be compensated?
• How is a trust different from a will and which is best for your situation?

A new grant-funded educational initiative will address these and many other aspects of farm estate planning in a series of meetings, the first of which will be a brief introductory session at Husker Harvest Days.

"Cultivate Your Legacy," will introduce participants to the topic, kick-starting the process of succession/transition planning of a farm or ranch operation. Sessions will be held from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. September 15, 16, 17 in the Husker Harvest Days Hospitality Tent.

This winter the group will host one-day, in-depth workshops across the state to provide more detailed information. After these workshops, participants can schedule private consultations with professionals experienced in the financial and legal aspects of agricultural estate planning.

"We don't do the estate plan, but we do provide information so people can consider the issues and then work with their local attorney to develop their plan," said Dave Goeller, Nebraska Extension farm business succession planning specialist.

Goeller and agricultural law attorney Joe Hawbaker of Omaha will be presenting at the six sessions at Husker Harvest Days. Goeller, himself a farm owner-operator, has years of experience as an educator working closely with farm families. Similarly, Hawbaker has been working with Nebraska farm and ranch families in estate planning for more than 20 years.

"If you ask, most people will say that estate planning is important, but it's not urgent. It's easy to put off until tomorrow unless your doctor says you have six months to live, and that's not the right time for this discussion" Goeller said.

Program sponsors are the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, University of Nebraska Extension, and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of Legal Aid of Nebraska.

More Information

To learn more about the Husker Harvest Day sessions or the one-day workshops visit www.nextgen.nebraska.gov or call the Rural Response Hotline at 1-800-464-0258.

For further information on farm and ranch estate planning contact Goeller at dgoeller2@unl.edu or 402-472-0661.

Why

In the next five years, Nebraska farm landlords expect to transfer 4.45 million acres to different owners. According to USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, of these,

•     362,462 acres are expected to be sold to non-relatives,
•     445,253 acres are expected to be sold to relatives,
•     3.03 million acres are expected to be put in a trust, and
•     609,402 acres landlords expect to gift away.