Released October 12, 2011

BLACKSBURG, Va.  – Planning the Future of Your Farm:  A Workbook Supporting Farm Transfer Decisions (Virginia Cooperative Extension-Publication 446-610) is now on the VCE web site at http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/446/446-610/446-610.html.  Robert Andrew Branan, Attorney from North Carolina and frequent cooperator with educational programs in Virginia, edited and wrote the publication.  At 114 pages this workbook in PDF format is a great resource for farmers, landowners, and forest owners with detailed discussions and worksheets that will assist in planning the business transition.   

Planning the Future of Your Farm workbook is laid out in four sections, each with narratives supported by worksheets.  The workbook is primarily for use by farm families (i.e. families that actively farm or that simply own farm or forest land).  Families can use it themselves or under the guidance of a trusted outside party.  The workbook is also designed to support curricula in workshops for farmers and landowners on farm transfer.

The first section, Developing Your Vision for the Future, discusses ‘soft issues’ — those that are the most difficult to discuss in daily discourse or over long distances, and can be ignored absent a forum for their discussion. The articles in this section are meant to offer some perspective on the process you are undertaking, stressing the nature of risk management and what you are accomplishing by protecting your wealth and the relationships within your family.

Section Two, Evaluating Your Farm Resources, includes a primer on property ownership, one of the first steps in the evaluation of your resources.  How you own property ultimately determines what decision-making ability you have over the resource.  The series of worksheets offer space and suggestions for you to rate the features of your farm, community, and family resources and skills.  Use the worksheets to identify features that need improvement to support your business model for farm resources.  The extensive “Farm Net Worth” worksheet is for current operations to determine their financial health for expansion and transfer, and realistic orientation on current asset liabilities.

Section Three, Farm Transfer Tools, discusses different types of business entities for agriculture, forestry and horticulture ventures, and some of the tools and agreements you will encounter in the estate planning process.  The worksheets are designed to help you organize the information you will need to construct these agreements.

The final section, Preparing to Meet with Professional Advisers, contains worksheets similar to those a professional adviser (financial planner or attorney) will have you complete as part of their service to you.  These will let you start the process earlier, and will save you time and money.  It will also show your advisers that you are on your toes about this planning process.

The workbook closes with the definitions of common legal terms relating to land ownership, business entities, and estate planning.

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Virginia Cooperative Extension, http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/news/fbmu/2011/10-11/article_4_fbmu-10-11.html

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