Transitioning the Ranch

One of the most difficult conversations on the farm or ranch involves what to do with the family business upon retirement – passing the operation from generation to generation.  Succession plans include some tough questions, but expert Dave Specht says, often the biggest hurdle is just getting started.
Specht: “There is no silver bullet for a family that is looking to transition. The one key is to get communications started early in terms of expectations.”
Having a clear picture of your family’s goals makes it easier to be sure those objectives are met.
Specht: “The most common mistakes I see are planning that takes place based on tax reasons — so the tax tail wagging the dog. It may not be the best thing for the family in their own situation but some professional comes to them with an idea that will save them taxes and they implement on it and then they only find out that they yea, they saved a lot of taxes but it really wasn’t going to achieve their goal.”
Knowing what the family wants as an end result is important to know in the planning stages.
Specht: “Once you’ve determined what you want in your picture should look like in your own mind then bring in your professionals to say this is what we want to happen - how do we implement this from a technical solution. My recommendation is the people that you know and people that you trust are a good place to start.”