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Farm Transition & Estate Planning: Helping Ohio Farm Families Face the Future

Chris Bruynis and David Marrison

Summary

The average Ohio farmer is 57 years old and a majority have not named a farm business successor or developed an up-to-date farm business transition plan. Additionally, less than one-third of all family businesses successfully transition from first generation to second generation and less than one-third of those eventually transition to the third generation making transition planning education critical. In an effort to maximize transition planning educational efforts, multiple program designs and targeted audiences have been utilized to reach the farm population. Program designs used include presentations as part of larger workshops, all day transition workshops, and multiple day transition workshops. Depending on design, the teaching goal varied from increasing knowledge on current planning tools and tax laws to helping the farm family start and complete many pieces of their transition plan. Targeted audiences have varied from agricultural professional serving farmers, to current farm owners, to the next generation of the family farm. The educational content and approach varied depending on the audience from a presentation format to an activity based format with case studies and suggested document organization. Since January 2012, nineteen programs were delivered in Ohio reaching 882 farmers. Additionally, nine programs were delivered outside of Ohio as invited presenters to another 811 farmers. Typical responses to evaluation data showed increased knowledge on estate tax laws, improved communication and expectations between generation, and sense of urgency to start working on a transition plan to reduce risk exposure. This presentation will provide details of these programs and their impacts.

Details

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