To Sell or Not to Sell?
After decades of ownership, generations of family succession, years of toil, blood, sweat, and tears, drought, floods, fires, depression, great successes, failures, and everything in between, you now have arrived at the point of needing to create a plan that guides the future for your ranch and your family legacy. You are at the point in your life where you must oversee how your lifetime of hard work, and the work of those before you, will be remembered and appreciated by those after you. The next chapter will be set up by you. Just how will your legacy look? And how will the land and assets transfer to the next generation? Successorship is, in many cases, one of the most difficult decisions you’ll ever make and possibly even harder to implement. But successorship planning is your responsibility. It’s a duty from you to those that you’ll leave behind. Without a plan, the hardship you leave your loved ones will be many times greater than yours. The potential for stiff battles and litigation is often greater without an estate plan. I would encourage you right now to commit to making those decisions about how and what you want your succession plan to look like. Set your goals, write them down, then contact your financial advisor, attorney, and experienced ranch and land real estate broker.
Now that we have addressed the elephant in the room, the reality is good news. If you are faced with making these kinds of decisions, you must have built one or more legacy properties. A succession plan will also be good news for your heirs and beneficiaries and should (if done correctly), eliminate a lot of stress, work, frustration, disagreements, and unnecessary costs for you and your family.
