There is a need for farmers to pay closer attention to estateplanning if they want to pass on their farming operations. In the past, farmershave avoided planning their estates because of the many complicated hurdles ofthe tax code, and the difficulty in determining if the farming operations willactually continue after their death. Additionally, farmers typically reinvest profitsinto their farming operation causing the farmer’s assets to be the farming operations. This would not be a problem unless there is a need for cashflow. This problem may arise when a person involved in the farmingoperation wants to sell their position. Even though the operator may wantto purchase the sellers position, he may be limited because his assets havebeen put back into the farming operation. As a result of these problems, AmericanFarmland Trust has held classes and published training materials to aidfarmers to create an estate plan for their future farming operations.
See Christopher Doering, As Farmers Age, Planning For The Future Of Their Business Grows, USA Today, May 19, 2013.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.
