Top Strategies to Work Well With a Succession Advisor

A succession advisor works best when your family has talked first and your numbers are ready. Turn up with both, and the process is likely to be more focused and efficient.

For farming families around Edenhope, handing on the farm is rarely just a paperwork job. It is about who wants to farm, who needs to be treated fairly, and how the retiring generation will live. Here is how to set up that first meeting so it goes well.

What Does a Farm Succession Advisor Actually Do?

A farm succession advisor helps your family agree on a plan for handing over the farm, then works with your other professionals to put it in place. Some act as a facilitator, running family meetings, while others focus on the legal or financial side.

The advisor usually does not do everything alone. Your solicitor prepares the wills, trusts and legal documents. Your accountant looks at tax. Your farm finance broker looks at how the plan will be funded and whether lenders will support it. The advisor keeps these people pulling in the same direction.

If you want a wider look at the topic first, our farm succession planning page is a good starting point.

How Do You Choose the Right Succession Consultant?

Choose a consultant who has worked with family farms, listens to every family member, and is clear about what they will and will not cover. Ask who else they expect to involve, and how they charge.

A few questions are worth asking up front. Have they handled farms with more than one child, including children who are not returning to the property? Do they run joint meetings, or only speak with the owners? Do they work alongside your existing accountant and solicitor? The trade-off is that a facilitator with a strong people focus may still need legal and tax specialists on top, so your total cost will be more than one adviser's fee.

Get Your Farm Numbers Ready Before the First Meeting

An advisor can only plan around figures you can put on the table, so gather your farm asset valuation, your debts and your income before you meet. This stops early meetings being spent on guesswork.

In practice that means a recent valuation of land and machinery, current loan balances, and a few years of financial statements. It also helps to have a rough idea of what the retiring farmers need to live on. Retirement income is worth settling early, because the farm often has to support both the retiring and the next generation.

The finance side matters here. If a son or daughter is buying in, they may need to borrow, and our farming land finance team can talk through what lenders typically look for. If the returning generation also needs equipment, farm machinery finance may form part of the plan.

Why Family Conversations Come Before Legal Structures

Agreeing what each family member wants should come before choosing any trust, will or company structure. Legal documents can lock in a plan, but they cannot fix a disagreement that has never been talked about.

Consider a scenario like this. A couple near Edenhope has three adult children. One works on the farm, and two live in the city with careers. The parents assume the city children will not want to be involved, and the farming child assumes they will inherit the lot. Nobody has said any of this aloud.

The parents bring in a facilitator, who holds a family meeting with everyone present. The city children say they do not want to farm, but they do want an equal share of the family's wealth in some form. The farming child says they cannot afford to buy out their siblings at full value. The family agrees to explore a mix of options. The farming child could buy part of the farm over time, some off-farm assets could go to the other children, and the parents could keep an income stream.

The outcome is a shared direction rather than a final answer. The solicitor and accountant then draft documents that match what the family already agreed, so there are fewer revisions and fewer surprises. The trade-off is time, because these conversations can be uncomfortable and may take several meetings.

How Do Trusts, Wills and Tax Fit Into a Succession Plan?

Trusts and wills are the legal tools that carry out your plan, and tax rules can affect which tools suit your family. Your solicitor and accountant should confirm the details for your situation.

Many farming families use a discretionary trust or a company to hold assets, and wills are often updated so they match the plan. Capital gains tax can come into play when farm assets change hands, and some small business concessions may be available depending on your circumstances. Whether they apply to you depends on things like your business structure and the assets involved, so this is a conversation for your accountant before you sign anything. No tax outcome can be assumed in advance.

Plan for the Money Side of a Farm Handover

A farm handover works best when the finance is mapped out before the transfer, including how a buyer will borrow and how the retiring generation will be paid. Lenders will want to see that the farm can service the debt.

As an illustration only, suppose a successor borrows $1,000,000 over 25 years at an example rate of 6.75% p.a. on a principal and interest basis. The repayment would be about $6,910 a month. If the farm cannot comfortably carry that on top of the parents' retirement income, the plan needs to change. That might mean staged purchases, a longer timeline, or a smaller debt, each with its own trade-off such as a slower handover or a smaller share of ownership.

A broker can test these numbers with lenders early, before the plan is locked in. Running different loan sizes through a calculator is also a useful step before your advisor meeting. You can learn more about how we work on our about us page, or see how we help local farmers on our Edenhope farm finance broker page.

Keep the Plan Alive After the Papers Are Signed

A succession plan should be reviewed regularly, because family situations, farm income and loan arrangements all change. A yearly check-in with your advisor, accountant and broker keeps the plan current.

Marriages, grandchildren, a bad season or a land purchase can all change what is fair and workable. Regular reviews can help you avoid larger changes later.

Call one of our team or book an appointment at a time that works for you. We will work through the finance side of your succession plan alongside your advisor, so every piece fits together.

Frequently Asked Questions