My husband and I make a good living from our tree nursery, but we want to retire and
hand the farm over to our children. We also need estate planning. Can you help with
both?

Yes. The two questions are intertwined. For the farm, we can find strategies to keep
your land productive and to protect value for your children in the future. For estate
planning, the basics – like powers of attorney and health-care directives – will ensure
that if you are out of commission for any reason, you will have a trusted person
available to step in and take care of your financial and medical needs until you’re back.
To transfer ownership of the farm, we can help you create a clear, orderly process for
valuing your enterprise. Careful planning can save your children on taxes and can avoid
expensive and time-consuming probate after you pass. Creating a specialized trust for
the nursery could allow for growth without an increasing tax burden, while still permitting
you to retain income. A buy-sell agreement would ensure that the business goes to the
person you choose. To fund the buy-sell, life insurance proceeds could be put into
another kind of tax-qualified trust.
Depending on your health, if you can foresee that after five years you might need
expensive long-term care, a Medicaid-compliant trust could shelter your valuable
property and still entitle you to have the Medicaid program pay for your residential care.
There is a wealth of opportunity in which to plan for your business to thrive, and for your
children to enjoy a comfortable and productive future.
No doubt you have plenty on your plate right now to keep the business going day to
day. Let us figure out how to pass your legacy along to the next generation, and to
provide the legal documents you need for financial and health-care management during
your lives. Too many family farms are getting squeezed into smaller acreage, saddled
with debt, or forced out altogether. Planning can save your farm from that fate, now and
into the future.