I recently gave a university lecture on succession and estate planning that included the importance of storing important information in a secure and known location.
I also talked about the importance of summarizing and storing contact information for key resource people along with this information.
Preparing for the lecture made me remember five discussions I’ve had this winter with farm families in situations where having readily available important information in times of crisis would be beneficial.
Four of the situations involved families that have experienced deaths because of accidents or illnesses. In each case, it was the farmer who died, leaving his widowed spouse to manage the affairs and business.
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I don’t think you can ever be prepared for this type of tragedy, but having documentation helps.
The latter point brings to mind the fifth discussion I’ve had recently, this one about intergenerational transition.
The family had gathered all of their important information, including wills, insurance policies, mortgages, loan documentation, landlord agreements, leasing contracts and bank and investment information with related account numbers and other details.
The information was kept in a safe and everyone in the family knew it existed and where it was.
The latter point is extremely important. Everybody knows where it is.
I can remember other discussions I’ve have in the past where a spouse would say: “I know it’s all there but I have no idea where it might be.”
Most families would agree that it’s important to have a well developed system in place to address these concerns. However, when the phone rings and the truck is coming to pick up a load of grain or cattle, “urgent” takes over and “important” sits another day and then another, and soon a month goes by.
I would argue that documenting important papers and related information definitely falls into the “important and urgent” category.
So what to do?
First, create a chart as outlined below, gather all related information and store it in a safe place. Make sure you tell everyone in the family what you’ve done. You may want to tell a brother or sister or children who may be living away from home.
Second, find a way to be accountable to getting this done. One idea would be to make an appointment with your lawyer to review your will and the other information you’ve gathered. This appointment will be a couple of weeks away, and that looming date will be incentive to get the rest of the work done. All that’s required today is a phone call.
Create a chart listing the contact information for all the farm’s service providers: accountant, tax preparation, legal, agronomy, marketing, investment, insurance, farm management, human resources, landlords and lender-banker.
The information should include the following.
- The firm’s name and the contact person within the firm that works with your family
- Phone number, email and other contact information
- Other comments that may be pertinent to the individual’s involvement in the succession plan
- Relevant account information
Terry Betker is a farm management consultant based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He can be reached at 204.782.8200 or terry.betker@backswath.com.
