SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (KTIV) -
Farming families learned how to plan and transition their family business to the next generation. Iowa State University held a two-day seminar in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, to show families how to plan for the future.
Instructors told participants it's important to have a vision for their farms. They say, the key is estate planning: setting up a time frame for when the older generation can fully hand over responsibility to family members who are next in line.
"It's more than just a lifestyle. It's a great lifestyle, but they need to treat it as a business and they need to manage it properly," said Dave Baker, a farm transition specialist at Iowa State University.
For some farmers, it's a whole new way of looking at succession. The Strecks recently moved back to Woodbury County to take over the family farm. They hope, by attending the class, the transition will be seamless. Brianne Streck learned how important communication is to the process.
"The biggest thing, I think that this class tries to get you to do is really just talk about things because we may all know what we think upstairs, but don't actually verbalize that until the other parties involved get what you're thinking," said Brianne Streck of Moville, Iowa.
Participants discussed wills, buy-sell agreements, and tax posturing as ways to transition from one generation to the next.
Much of the discussion for the seminar, which started Friday, centered on creating SMART goals. The acronym stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and within a certain timeframe.
