1. Home
2. Conferences
3. 2024 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference

Saving Our Acres - Estate and Transition Planning

Emily Morrow

Summary

The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia is one of the only areas of the state that has seen an increased population over the last decade, and local farms are feeling the impacts of the subsequent development pressure. The project was funded by the Northeast Extension Risk Management Education (ERME) and provided four monthly risk management education sessions around estate and transition planning to producers. Following the educational sessions, producers had access to a free consultation with a lawyer or an accountant to make the first steps in their estate or transition planning process. In reports from similarly funded programs in nearby states, cost is identified by producers as a major barrier to completing an estate plan.

This project's impacts include nearly 50 producers receiving increased knowledge in eight estate and transition planning topics, changes in behavior by producers, and increased acreage of farmland being passed to the next generation. Landowners that attend the program collectively owned over 3,500 acres.

Details

---