Farm Succession Planning Is Much Harder Than Family Business Succession

Farm succession is hard, for that matter all succession is hard. That's why 2/3 of all otherwise successful businesses fail to make it from one generation to the next. What makes farm succession so much harder is that the farm's assets are largely tied up in farm land. Farm land is notoriously over valued by the IRS for estate tax purposes. The successors sometimes have to sell some of it to raise the cash to pay the taxes and other transfer costs. Plus the non-farm heirs, folks who want and deserve their inheritance in cash, stand right behind the government to get their share as well.

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