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Design Your Succession Plan

Lori Scharmer and Crystal Schaunamann

Summary

Farm and ranch succession planning is emerging as a critical need for America’s producers. In the United States 77% of farm assets are owned by those 70 year old and older. Those assets will be transferring as owners pass away. Are today’s owners ready to transfer assets to whom they want, how they want and when they want? Will they transfer a viable business to the next generation?
NDSU Extension Service has developed Design Your Succession Plan, a program with tools and resources for North Dakota producers to beginning the succession planning process. The program emphasizes: Getting started, Opening lines of communication, and Working with professionals to construct a plan with a shared vision for the family business extending into the next generation.
This multi session program offers not only knowledge and resources but also a workbook to gather information needed for a succession plan. Case studies are used to generate discussion around the tough issues families deal with in succession planning.
Following the program, participants showed a 51% increase in understanding the value of mentoring a successor, 68% increase in identifying professionals to use in succession planning and a 120% increase in knowledge of information and documents needed when beginning to work on a succession plan.
We were encouraged to find 80% of participants indicated they were likely to work on a succession plan in the next 6 months. Participants will be contacted after 6 months to determine the amount of work they have accomplished on their succession plan.

Details

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