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The Teagasc succession and inheritance event, held in the Inishowen Gateway Hotel in Buncrana recently, drew a huge crowd of over 450 people. Young and old were in attendance.
The event was Knowledge Transfer (KT) approved, which would have helped to draw a crowd, but the topic itself is one that every farmer or landowner must deal with it at least once, and probably twice, in their lifetime.
The event consisted firstly of three formal presentations given by Teagasc staff. Kevin Connolly spoke about succession and inheritance, Tom Curran covered farm partnerships and Veronica Ryan gave a presentation on the dangers involved in farming and farm safety.
The event then broke for tea and the outside walls of the hall were lined with tables and chairs occupied by solicitors, accountants, Teagasc specialists and various different professionals. They were all ready and waiting to give a free and private consultation and answer any questions that needed to be answered.
If anyone went home with an unanswered question it was more than likely because they didn’t ask it in the first place!
Succession and inheritance is one of those subjects that people tend to shy away from
Succession and inheritance is one of those subjects that people tend to shy away from and one that people tend not to know a lot about. Others think they know a bit about, which sometimes can be worse than knowing nothing.
A wise man once told me, a little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing.
When is the best time to transfer the family farm? On death or before? Is there a will in place? Is there an obvious successor? Are there more than one obvious successor? What are the tax implications? What reliefs will be available? How much will it all cost?
The never-ending stream of questions can make people nervous.
The key message on the night was that it is never too early to seek advice and put a plan in place. The earlier the better, in fact.
Professional advice
Seeking professional advice will ultimately lead to the best course of action being followed for each individual case and should lead to the process being as painless as possible, both on the pocket and the mind.
One possible situation, made apparent to me by a solicitor I spoke to on the night, was the disadvantages of waiting and transferring a farm in a will at time of death.
If, in the unfortunate event, the named owner of the farm, became unwell and had to spend his or her final years being cared for in hospital or a home, the cost of their care could be taken out of the value of the farm on their death.
Some might say this is fair enough, but in my opinion, a family losing part or perhaps all their farm because one of its members became sick is far from fair.
As it stands at the minute, under the Fair Deal scheme, only 22% of the value of a person’s home can be taken to cover the cost of their care. But, as the solicitor put it, the farm is fair game.
The farm also must be out of a person’s name for more than five years or the government can still go after it.
Surely this is something we need our farm organisations to lobby the government and seek some kind of a review on.
Farm succession – it’s good to talk
Fair Deal changes kicked into the new year
Fair Deal reform for farms this spring
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