Having 'the talk' with the owner generation

[Clint Fischer/Braintrust Ag]  Generally speaking, I like to have that younger generation approach, the older generation, with this kind of framework in mind. It's saying, I have, especially if they have their own operation, and they just don't know what's going to happen with the land base or with the equipment. You know, the older generation just doesn't talk about it. They didn't. Anytime it gets brought up it gets shut down.

[Yeager] What? What, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're saying that maybe an old farmer might not talk and talk about something important, like that is just breaking news, Clint, let's sound the alarm. So let's keep going. 

[Fischer] Once or twice, I've seen it happen. But really, the approach is this. If I'm in that younger generation's shoes, I'm saying, I'm looking out for my family, I'm looking to protect what I've built, whether that's part of the operation or not. And part of that part of being a good steward of my operation, and part of being a good business owner, for my family, is understanding and planning the future. And so, you know, Dad, uncle, whoever it is, I'm looking at planning out, you know, 5, 10, 15,  20 years from my operation right now, you know, and I like to say, you know, say that you talk to me say that you talk to a third party, or that just generally neutralizes things, you know, you know, I was talking with, with the guy who works with this kind of thing, and, and he really encouraged me to see, you know, part of my 5, 10, 20 year plan is, I don't know, you know, what, what place I have in your future plans. And so you just kind of bring it up as I'm looking out for my family, I just, I need to plan this to be a good business person. And you approach it with humility, and humble and with the approach that says, I'm not expecting anything. I'm not anticipating to  receive anything. But to be, you know, to have a well thought out plan. I just need to know whether there's anything on the table here or not, or how things are going to look. But really, it's I think it's key to approach it, that I'm not entitled to anything here.  You know, and I think that, once you have that attitude, going into it, understanding that I am looking out for my family here, that generally they're a little bit more willing to open up now. Not all the time. It all and I've heard some people say, my dad said, well, you'll find out when I pass away, you know, and if that's the case, then so be it. And then that's when I tell that younger generation, okay, then you can assume that you're getting nothing, which is probably use this and then the rest is a windfall. Yeah, right on that basis, and then the rest would be a windfall. 

[Yeager] What's that conversation maybe we should be looking at if we're not directly tied to agriculture, or we are. And we need to have this conversation because we need to have it. 

[Fischer] First and foremost, I would just encourage, strongly encourage the owner generation to be the ones to initiate it. That conversation goes something like, he re's what our plan is, or we don't have a plan. And we are working out putting a plan together. And getting everybody in that room. And it's saying, here's our plan, you may or may not agree with it, you don't have to like it. But ultimately, these are our assets that we're going to pass along in this manner. We have some farm kids, we have some off farm kids, here's our current plan. This could change depending on a nursing home stays. If we buy a house in Arizona, you know, things could change. But as of right now, here's what our plan is. Any questions. As simple as that. Now, that's assuming that there is some type of a plan in place. If there is no plan in place, that's what I really encourage, you know, reaching out to somebody like myself, or, you know, a good trust estate attorney, you know, some CPAs can give you some good, you know, tax guidance and, and referrals. But whenever I work with, with a farm transition, there's, there's a couple of key things that are just right off the bat, the first thing is taking a complete inventory, what do we own? And how do we own it? You know, how are things legally titled, just because when we dig into that, we find out a lot of hidden, you know, potential pitfalls that could happen with just that one exercise. So that's step number one. Step number two is we sit down separately, the owner generation, we're going to list out what are our goals and objectives? And then the successor generation? What are our goals and objectives? Separate rooms, not together? Right? These are what you see happening in the future. Now you can take these two sheets of goals and objectives, put them together and see what things line up, and what things don't line up. And oftentimes, there's going to be a few that do line up. But there's a lot that don't. Now, those are areas that we need to open up the communication on and then that's when that family meeting needs to happen. And then we can collaborate, you know, depending on the relationship dynamics, but that's the approach that goes into it now say, Hey, I don't have a plan, what do you kids think should happen to this stuff. And then you have, you know, husbands and wives and in laws that they all have opinions. And that's when things can get messy, and then in then it becomes a, I don't want to deal with this. It's uncomfortable. There's conflict surrounding this. I'm going to kick this can down the road, until eventually, there's no more road to kick the can down.

The full MtoM is available now.

Contact: Paul.Yeager@iowapbs.org