Succession Planning: Your Most Important Farm Task for 2023
The hardest decision you have to make once a year is crop insurance. It is complicated, and only a few people it as well as they should.
While that’s an annual tough task, the hardest decision you have to make once in your life is transition planning. I’m here to tell you there is nothing more vital you can do in 2023 than get your house in order for transition planning.
When to Start?
Believe it or not, the people we enjoy working with the most start their transition plan when they are 35 to 40 years old. Time, structure and peace of mind are huge factors for successful planning.
Those in the 55-to-62 range are another targeted timeframe if you’ve already missed that first window. Five to seven years of transition is ideal for turning over assets, tax implications and some managerial decisions. Some operators choose to have financial involvement for even longer if it makes sense for both parties.
If you are age 62 to70 and haven’t started transition planning, clear your schedule after reading this and get rolling. You owe it to yourself, your family and your successors to get your ducks in a row.
Plan Before Need
Don’t view succession planning as picking your retirement date. I want you to have a plan and be ready for when that day comes.
Whether you’re 35 or 65, things happen. We often humor the situation lightly by joking with people about “what would happen to your farm if you got hit by a beer truck on the way home today?” That proverbial beer truck prompts many questions:
- Who knows what you know?
- Who doesn’t know what you know?
- Who needs to know what you know?
- What exactly do they need to know?
Unfortunately, in our line of work, we see the good, the bad and the really, really ugly. There are situations, also, where we can’t help. Either the retiring farmer is too old to draft a plant or the problem is too complicated or the family just simply won’t work together.
Don’t let your farm and business get to that point. Get started, make a plan and put it into action. The most important thing you can do for your business in 2023 is get started on your transition plan.
Don’t know where to start? Shoot me an email at shay@agviewsolutions.com, and I’ll send you five documents: Budgeting for Retirement, Transition Checklist, Transition Timeline, Transition Questionnaire and a sample Family Meeting Agenda.
