Farm, ranch estate planning on agenda

The average age of farmers continues increasing, according to the latest Census of Agriculture, yet many of those farmers haven’t completed an estate plan.

Connie Haden, a lawyer with The Law Firm of Haden & Colbert, will discuss the ins and outs of farm and ranch estate planning at the National Agricultural Law Center’s 11th annual Mid-South Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference, to be held June 6-7.

The Mid-South Conference will be held at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at Memphis. The conference will also be available via livestream for those unable to participate in person. Registration, agenda and more information is available at https://nationalaglawcenter.org/midsouth2024/. For those who register by May 13, two bonus hours of free online CLE/CE is available.

The 2022 Census of Agriculture, released this year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, found that the average age of a farmer is 58.1 years, up 0.6 years from the 2017 census, according to a news release.

The lack of an estate plan can lead to disruption in farm operations, not to mention chaotic cash flow and a lot of hurt feelings following the death of the farm’s principal operator.

During her session, “Estate Planning & The Farm: Top Tips and Practice Pointers,” Haden will provide practical, need-to-know estate planning information.

“Estate planning is extremely important for everyone, but especially so for producers and farm families and the overall health of the ag industry. It’s definitely not a onesize-fits-all situation,” Haden said. “We’ll be addressing practical tips, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid during the estate planning process.”

The NALC is a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and works in close partnership with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Agricultural Library.