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Colleen Settle
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(Indianapolis) – Dec. 18, 2024 – The Indiana Ag Law Foundation (INAgLaw) hosted a new workshop last month focused on helping families work together to begin the farm transition process.  The day-long workshop, which was held at Indiana Farm Bureau headquarters, featured sessions designed to generate thoughts and ideas about farm succession planning. Six multi-generational families attended and worked together with legal experts to further the process of their succession planning.

The workshop was an extension of INAgLaw’s annual Estate & Succession Planning for the Family Farm program, which is targeted toward family farmers and attorneys to arm them with the basics of succession planning. The new workshop is more intensive and geared toward directly assisting families with their plans in a smaller group environment. 

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest Census of Agriculture, 51% of Indiana producers say they are involved in estate planning or succession planning.

“With only about half of farmers in Indiana stating they have some sort of plan, it is clear that these conversations about transitioning the farm can be difficult for families to navigate,” said John Shoup, director of INAgLaw. “The goal of the new workshop was to be an extension of our annual program by diving deeper into the specifics needed for a succession plan in a smaller, group environment that facilitates some of those hard conversations for families, while benefiting from one-on-one counseling from experts.”

The workshop was hosted by Shoup and facilitated by Clint Fischer, attorney with Ribstein & Hogan Law Firm in Brookings, South Dakota. During the day-long workshop, families discussed their farm vision, values, goals and inventory. They also talked about developing a transition plan framework and learned about key legal concepts and business structures. Each family participated in breakout sessions where they had conversations about defining their farm’s legacy, understanding farm assets and liabilities, and reflecting on how they want the transition and estate planning process to unfold for their family.

Bryant Barger attended the workshop with his dad, uncle and cousin. Their family raises corn and soybeans in Wells and Adams counties. As the third generation, his cousin will eventually take over the farm while Barger, who is an attorney, steps away from the day-to-day operations. The workshop helped facilitate conversations about how his dad and uncle want that to happen.

“My family was able to have some very important — if not difficult — discussions about the future of our operations, and the workshop structure and prompts served as a great catalyst to get those conversations going,” Barger said. “One of the biggest takeaways was the importance of having your ‘team’ built in advance, like your attorney, CPA and financial planner, as well as the importance of clear communication between these parties to ensure that they are all working together toward a unified goal."

The Stafford family also attended. They are a third-generation farm family growing corn, soybeans and wheat in Tipton County. Jarren Stafford attended along with his mom, dad and brother. They each have their own entities of the farm, and they had been working on a written succession plan, so the workshop was a natural next step.

“We had a good start to our planning and had been working with an estate attorney previously,” said Jarren. “But it is important to maximize every aspect of the plan and update it every few years. The program allowed dedicated time to have important conversations and look through our plan to see what pieces of the puzzle we needed.

“For me, the most important takeaway was to always communicate and be open about what everyone is thinking. There are too many situations where miscommunication happens, and it can be prevented.”

Jarren’s dad, Tim, agreed that the time at the workshop was beneficial.

“Even if you have a plan in place, things change and it is important to keep having those conversations,” explained Tim. “The breakout sessions made you think about things that you may have missed or view something in a different way. I would recommend this to other farm families who need to plan for the future.”

INAgLaw plans to offer more farm succession workshops in 2025. Families interested in learning more about the program and potentially attending a future session, should fill out the form at infb.org/farmsuccession. Additionally, you can contact John Shoup for more information at jshoup@inaglaw.org.

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About INAgLaw: The Indiana Agricultural Law Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization established in 2005 by Indiana Farm Bureau. Indiana farmers operate in a complex legal environment. Federal, state and local laws, statutes and regulations present difficult challenges to Indiana agriculture. Navigating the legal landscape has become an essential facet of modern agriculture. Through its existence, INAgLaw has effectively promoted a better understanding of legal issues facing Indiana agriculture through support of precedent-setting litigation and educational programming.