Estate and succession planning can feel overwhelming, and it’s no surprise that many producers put it off. Many factors and unknowns come into play and can include: fear of losing your identity, not wanting to give up control, ego, fear of things changing and not wanting to hurt people’s feelings.

Estate and succession planning can feel overwhelming, and it’s no surprise that many producers put it off. Many factors and unknowns come into play and can include: fear of losing your identity, not wanting to give up control, ego, fear of things changing and not wanting to hurt people’s feelings.

For cattle producers, succession planning is often discussed in terms of what to do: create a will or trust, meet with an attorney, talk to your accountant and start building a plan.

It is important to have a comprehensive estate plan for farm and ranch families to ensure smooth property transfer to the next generation. Here are 10 tools that can be used to help with the transfer.

Taking a minute to set up a succession and estate plan early on can allow the operation to continue successfully for the next generation.

We could extensively discuss the misuse of the phrase “estate planning” to describe what should be called “transition planning” for ag operations. Instead, I’ll simply summarize by saying an estate plan is more than just a last will and testament, and should plan for the remainder of your life as well as your intentions after your death.

For many farm and ranch families, creating a succession plan can feel like reaching the finish line of a long and challenging process.

Succession planning is being addressed across the nation to help farmers and ranchers plan to pass down an operation to the next generation.