When you grow up on a family-owned farm, you learn to live in sync with the hours of the day and the seasons of the year. Depending on what you raise or grow, you count on annual harvests that will either make or break the family’s fortune for that year.
When you have a couple of lean years back-to-back, your ownership of the family farm could be jeopardized. While there may be no way to avoid catastrophic weather events or other crop failures, you, fortunately, do have ways to protect your family farm and its holdings from creditors — even after you pass on.
What will happen to the farm if something happens to you?
If you were suddenly incapacitated due to illness or injury, who would step into your role on the family farm? Consider that your own spouse might be too grief-stricken to rise to the occasion. Your children may be too young, too inexperienced, or not even interested in toiling out in the fields for such a meager yield.
Some figures show that not even a third of America’s family farms have designated successors for that very reason. Children grow up, some go off to school, while others may marry and move far away from the family homestead. Even if there are adult children living nearby, there is no guarantee that they can handle such a transition.
What can a farmer do?
Learning more about the benefits of a trust for your farm and the importance of naming a successor to take over can give you the peace of mind you need to relax and enjoy all the simple joys that farm life offers.