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Multiple Year Farm Transition & Estate Planning Program Outcomes & Impacts Through Evaluation

Gary Hachfeld

Summary

“Farm Transition & Estate Planning: Create Your Farm Legacy” is an interactive workshop targeted at farm and ranch families. Multiple year program outcomes measured over an eight year period were participant behavioral change and increased knowledge around the key educational points of the program. Key educational points included individual, family, business and retirement goals; intergenerational communications; tax issues; business entities and transition strategies; treatment of heirs; personal estate planning; and long-term health care planning issues. These were measured by an end-of-meeting evaluation utilizing a Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Cumulative eight year program impacts included how participants acted on their new knowledge and the financial impact of those actions. This was measured by a follow-up evaluation done six months after the last workshop. Participants reported their progress with the transition and personal estate planning process and how useful the workshop and workbook they received were in the process. They also listed obstacles and challenges they encountered that may have halted their progress. The end-of-meeting and follow-up evaluation data was used to calculate the impact of the program as well as enabling the program team to improve future programs. Workshops have been delivered in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. A total of 5,069 farm and ranch family members have attended representing 2,503 farm/ranch businesses and 1,381 different communities. The cumulative evaluative data shows a financial impact in excess of $354 million dollars for the eight year program period.

Details

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