Estate Planning for Farms and Ranches

Succession and estate planning can be challenging for farm and ranch property and related livestock, equipment, and other personal property. There is a common misconception that federal estate taxes threaten farm or ranch property, preventing assets from getting to rightful heirs. Over the past twenty years, legislation has managed to ease the estate tax burden.

According to the current Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), tax exemptions will remain at $12.06 million per inheritor until 2026. Although farm assets may require filing a federal estate tax return, debts against assets will lower the final estate value. Depreciation will protect the estate from excessive valuation and taxation.

Assets and Reinvestment Strategies

Farm or ranch assets typically fall into three categories:

• Business
• Retirement
• Inheritance

Much of the tangible assets come from reinvesting a majority of farm profits back into the business to build capacity and maintain or modernize buildings and equipment. Reinvestment can also expand the operation’s size to capitalize on economies of scale. However, too much reinvestment may unbalance other asset categories, particularly retirement.

Succession Planning

If there is a successor already working in the business, a family farm hand in training to one day run the operation, they might assume there is planning to make business assets affordable and accessible when they take over the farm. Yet, there may also be off-farm heirs, and the owner may include farm assets to serve as an inheritance. So what happens to inheritances if the focus is on the business and retirement assets? Early and careful succession planning is required to determine how best to balance the farm’s business, retirement, and inheritance goals.

Property inheritance is common within farm and ranch families. There is an emotional symbolism attachment to the property transfer from generation to generation. Throughout the years, the farm or ranch may come to symbolize love, trust, power, history, and family rituals. Identifying the right course of action and making estate planning decisions can be a daunting task with so much legacy investment. Because of these emotional attachments and complexities, many farm owners mistakenly do not create a plan.

Why Estate Planning is Important for Farmers and Ranchers

Without estate planning, owners leave the farm subject to the state’s succession plan, where the assets are typically divided equally among the heirs. This equal distribution of farm assets increases the chance that the on-farm successor will not have all the farm assets required for business operation. In time, this situation will impede the farm’s ability to grow or put the business at risk of failing as the on-farm successor must buy sibling inherited farm assets back at near full market value. Most farms do not generate enough cash flow for the successor to purchase the farm assets outright. This situation puts the farm business in the position of having to pay for its assets twice to cash out off-farm heirs’ inheritance.

Statistics Regarding Heirs and Asset Division

Oklahoma State University developed a statistical model comparing probabilities of success rates of various farm inheritance transfer strategies. The lowest success rates and farm failure most often occur when farm assets are divided equally among heirs. As an owner, if you want your farm or ranch legacy to continue as a working business, your estate planning strategy needs to be more creative.

Three guiding principles can help an owner think through fair and practical distribution decisions:

• Equality principle – Regardless of contribution by each heir, assets will divide equally
• Proportional equality principle – Asset distribution is contingent upon individual heir contributions in maintaining or growing the asset
• Need-based principle – Those heirs with more need receive primary consideration

Making the Right Decision

Farm families generally incorporate all three principles to varying degrees. Updating the estate plan may change the decision-making emphasis dependent on fortunes outside the farm, goodwill, and necessity. Like many decisions in life, timing is everything, and your estate planning attorney can readily amend your plan to meet changing challenges and fortunes.

However the farm or ranch owner decides to split assets, one of the most important aspects of estate planning is an honest appraisal of the farm’s financial capacity to continue as a family business and achieve its goals. If the goal is the continuation of the family farm for subsequent generations, then the equal distribution of farm assets is not a tenable solution.

Communication is Critical

The owner generation must communicate expectations to family members, presenting clear goals to ensure a smooth future transition. The more off-farm heirs understand the decision-making process, the better their expectations are managed to reduce the possibility of family conflict after the owner passes. Identifying and documenting near and long-term goals for a farm or ranch business owner and how they affect family heirs often make clearer pathways to success.

An estate planning attorney can take the owner’s goals and financial information and structure an estate plan that will preserve the business without unnecessary family conflict for those heirs who are not in the farm or ranch business. The sooner you begin planning with your lawyer, the easier it will be to accommodate all heirs while preserving the family legacy. Life insurance policies and other techniques can provide inheritable money to off-farm heirs while permitting the farm to continue operation, keeping your legacy intact.

This article offers a summary of aspects of estate planning and elder law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For assistance, please contact us at 914-498-8709 and schedule a consultation.