Published Mar 14, 2017

PFI members featured in new farm transitions guide
By Teresa Opheim

Peoples Company of Clive has just released a new guide on farmland transfer–and the guide is peppered with quotes, photos and tips from PFI members.

In “Your Farmland and the Future: Setting Goals, Taking Action” we hear from:

  • Rick and Jane Juchems of Plainfield, who communicate often with their son and daughter about their legacy plans. “Our children need to know what is going on,” Jane says. “We are trying to get everything on the table so that no one’s expectations are inaccurate.”
  • Bob and Linda Lynch of Gilmore City, who share their strategies, such as life insurance and gifting of land, designed to ensure that their son Jay will be able to stay on the land and continue as the fifth generation of Lynches to farm.
  • Susan and Rob Fleming of Carlisle and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, share how they have used their farmland for income, for conservation and to provide land for beginning farmers.

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    Deb Tidwell and Jeff Klinge, featured in “Your Farmland and the Future”

Barb Opheim

Barb Opheim, featured in “Your Farmland and the Future”

Other farmland owners share their advice, including:

  • Write a Farm Legacy Letter to document where your farm has been and your hopes for its future;
  • Join with other farmland owners to talk to and learn from each other;
  • Start early in the legacy planning for your farmland;
  • Put together a good team to help you with the transition—the process is often too complicated to go it alone.

Also featured are PFI members: Paul Ackley; Jon Bakehouse; Del Ficke, Tom and Irene Frantzen; John, Bev and the late William and Mary Gilbert; Helen Gunderson; Chris Henning; Jeff Klinge and Deb Tidwell; Margaret McQuown and Steve Turman; Dale Nimrod; and Barb and Wayne Opheim.

“Your Farmland and the Future: Setting Goals, Taking Action” was released at an event at the World Food Prize Headquarters on March 8, 2017. Mary Swander’s “Map of My Kingdom” play also was performed that night.

PFI-member Peoples Company, lead by Steve Bruere, commissioned the guide and has generously printed copies for anyone who wants one. The lead author of the report is Teresa Opheim, Senior Fellow with Practical Farmers of Iowa and editor of the book The Future of Family Farms: Practical Farmers’ Legacy Letter Project (University of Iowa Press 2016).

Attorney Gordon Fischer is a contributor and discusses the documents that should be part of most estate plans (estate planning questionnaire, last will and testament, power of attorney for healthcare, power of attorney for finances, disposition of personal property, and disposition of personal remains. Other contributors are the consulting and accounting firm K-Coe Isom, the Beginning Farmer Center at Iowa State University, and Home State Bank.

To get a copy of “Your Farmland and the Future: Setting Goals, Taking Action,” visit www.PeoplesCompany.com. Or call the PFI office and order a hard copy–or look for it on the PFI table at any of this summer’s upcoming field days..