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Trusts prove beneficial in farm estate planning
A Farm Management Specialist says trusts can serve as an important estate planning tool for farm families.
Kelvin Leibold with Iowa State University Extension tells Brownfield a trust is like a bucket to carry your assets in.
“Then you write a rulebook that says what the rules are that the trustee should follow to oversee the management and eventually the dispersal of those assets.”
He says trusts are helpful for larger estates that are more complicated or controlled over a longer period and can separate control and ownership of resources.
“If you have got four or five farms and nobody that is farming them, you are not passing on a business you are passing on a real estate holding company. On the other hand, if you are passing on a farming business, you have to think about who can control that land and not necessarily who owns it.”
Leibold says farmers who have not started or reviewed estate plans in the past five years need to do that sooner rather than later.
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