Beef4lifeguy
You are one of the many examples of someone who got smacked simply because secrets were kept, money was not designated and open and candid discussions did not take place and nothing was ever recorded and notarized. I think I mentioned this in my first post on this topic. We all know someone....
And the funny thing is this should be completed even if the parents are under 40. Why? Because next week they could both be written off in a car accident. And trust me it does happen.
And then someone else will decide how the farm is broken up - so while a will is important so is a plan for those who might want to farm - or at a minimum get their share of the farm when you and I and all our friends are dead and dust in the ground.
Without going into the fine details we went with a product from London Life called the 20 pay life insurance - and we crunched it down so we could pay for everything in 12 years - ten are done and 2 to go. There is additional cash that grows in the policy that if we want we can take out - and it works out to be tax free money. Remember this is a long term thing and not everyone will be interested in it. However it does make it easy to split things up because someone will get the land and others get cash in leiu - which saves court battles after the fact - and those DO happen.
As an aside - my friend recently bought a place - he put long term life insurance on his folks and used the money when they died - sounds cold? Well when he discussed it with his folks they encouraged it. As his Dad - who I knew very well said - "We are all going to die and if the kids can make some cash off of it - good for them!"
As always everyone has a different plan and everyone has different ideas.
The big thing I found is everyone wants to think they are the expert. The accountant wanted to recommend a certain type of life insurance. The lawyer wanted to recommend an accountant. And they all wanted cash for their advice.
I got ticked at them all - I do not go to the mechanic to get my teeth fixed - why would I listen to my accountant about life insureance? He does taxes.
And the beat goes on.
So we went one better. We went to them all and WE made the plan and decisions.
However the one good thing about going through an insurance company for some of the advice (actually, most of the advice) was they provided an accountant and some ag advice from another "expert" at their cost.
Because we had younger kids at the time we also looked at and did set up a portion in a trust in event we were both written off in an accident. That was administered by two family members, two close farming friends and an honest broker who is a businessman who knows nothing about ag - that honest broker was important to us as an outside opinion in event of a dispute at the table. We wanted someone who would look at things independently.
No matter what you do, it will be different from us, your neighbours and possibly other people that you know.
But I now am a believer and would tell anyone - get it done now - and do not let your personal prejudices about certain items - ie using life insurance as a tool - cause you to not look at ALL the options.
By the way - my disclaimer - I do not sell insurance and I do not give advice for a fee - I am simply a guy who does his best to raise his family.
Best to you
Bez
You are one of the many examples of someone who got smacked simply because secrets were kept, money was not designated and open and candid discussions did not take place and nothing was ever recorded and notarized. I think I mentioned this in my first post on this topic. We all know someone....
And the funny thing is this should be completed even if the parents are under 40. Why? Because next week they could both be written off in a car accident. And trust me it does happen.
And then someone else will decide how the farm is broken up - so while a will is important so is a plan for those who might want to farm - or at a minimum get their share of the farm when you and I and all our friends are dead and dust in the ground.
Without going into the fine details we went with a product from London Life called the 20 pay life insurance - and we crunched it down so we could pay for everything in 12 years - ten are done and 2 to go. There is additional cash that grows in the policy that if we want we can take out - and it works out to be tax free money. Remember this is a long term thing and not everyone will be interested in it. However it does make it easy to split things up because someone will get the land and others get cash in leiu - which saves court battles after the fact - and those DO happen.
As an aside - my friend recently bought a place - he put long term life insurance on his folks and used the money when they died - sounds cold? Well when he discussed it with his folks they encouraged it. As his Dad - who I knew very well said - "We are all going to die and if the kids can make some cash off of it - good for them!"
As always everyone has a different plan and everyone has different ideas.
The big thing I found is everyone wants to think they are the expert. The accountant wanted to recommend a certain type of life insurance. The lawyer wanted to recommend an accountant. And they all wanted cash for their advice.
I got ticked at them all - I do not go to the mechanic to get my teeth fixed - why would I listen to my accountant about life insureance? He does taxes.
And the beat goes on.
So we went one better. We went to them all and WE made the plan and decisions.
However the one good thing about going through an insurance company for some of the advice (actually, most of the advice) was they provided an accountant and some ag advice from another "expert" at their cost.
Because we had younger kids at the time we also looked at and did set up a portion in a trust in event we were both written off in an accident. That was administered by two family members, two close farming friends and an honest broker who is a businessman who knows nothing about ag - that honest broker was important to us as an outside opinion in event of a dispute at the table. We wanted someone who would look at things independently.
No matter what you do, it will be different from us, your neighbours and possibly other people that you know.
But I now am a believer and would tell anyone - get it done now - and do not let your personal prejudices about certain items - ie using life insurance as a tool - cause you to not look at ALL the options.
By the way - my disclaimer - I do not sell insurance and I do not give advice for a fee - I am simply a guy who does his best to raise his family.
Best to you
Bez
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