Farm Succession Planning

Design Your Succession Plan

The first step is the hardest. Creating a succession plan takes time, effort, family communication and working with professionals. Design Your Succession Plan will help you explore what you want for your business, how to discuss it in the family and how to get started creating a succession plan. It also will help you choose and prepare to work with professionals who will make the plan legal and viable.

Design Your Succession Plan is a multi-session workshop to help you:

• Get started on a succession plan using a workbook during and after the workshop
• Open lines of communication with family to create a shared vision for the family business
• Work with professionals to construct a plan and documents to put the family’s vision into action

This program will explore the four components of succession planning: planning for your business, retirement, transition and estate. You will be prepared to communicate, plan, vision, write and shape the legacy of your family farm/ranch business, as well as save hundreds of dollars by completing these crucial planning steps before visiting with professionals.

You will receive a resource binder and workbook to use during and after the sessions. Starting the workbook during class will give you a jumpstart on your succession plan. When you leave the program, you will be motivated to continue communicating and working on the family farm legacy.

Who should attend?

Design Your Succession Plan is for families who want to shape the future ownership of their family farm  – the family legacy – whether that is transferring a viable business to the next generation or determining how to divide farm assets. Even if you have attended other transition, estate or succession planning classes, consider attending this program to get a start on your succession plan.

Who teaches this?

Join trained CCE educators from across NYS, along with various resource partners, each week for discussions, presentations and more.

When will this be offered again?

The next session of this series will take place in winter 2023. Check back in fall 2023 for more information.

Resources

Farmers will find Estate and Succession Planning for Small Business Owners a useful resource as they start to think about this process.

New York FarmNet works with farm families to provide a network of contacts and support services to help them develop skills for dealing with life challenges and transitions through personalized education, confidential consulting, and referral. FarmNet can be contacted by calling 1/800-547-FARM

University of Minnesota Extension developed a series of 10 Factsheets to assist farm owners with transferring the farm business to the next generation owner.

Last updated May 5, 2023