Three farmers discuss why daughters often get left out of succession plans. One points out that hard work alone isn't enough: daughters need capital and control. Another worries about affording retirement without forcing kids to buy them out or sell the farm.
Wanting to raise your daughters to have choices but not obligations. Can you expand on that?
They shouldn't be expected to have to just work hard. If they have some options and there's, um, a little bit more capital in their control would make farming much more enjoyable for them. You know, you can't just work hard. You have to have things in place. If we raise the girls on a farm for the lifestyle of it and one of them decides to go Elsewhere, and one that decides to stay, we're gonna say, well, now your lifestyle is gonna be cut in half, or we have to sell it all to give equal isn't fair, fair isn't equal type scenario, you know, so that there's that exit strategy on our transition.
We don't think we can afford to retire, and we don't want to expect our girls to pay us to retire either.
When you have a goal of leaving behind financially capable children, that is a goal worth discussing.