Land Transition Can Lead to Unintended Consequences
by Allan Vyhnalek, University of Nebraska Extensions
Grandpa and Grandma farmed. They retired. They had two irrigated quarters. They had two sons who had started farming operations themselves. So, their transition plan was to give a quarter to each of the sons at their passing. Grandpa passed away, followed by the Grandmother about a year or so later. The lawyer handling the estate was not given specific instructions about the transfer of the quarters. He just put number one and number two in a hat, the sons drew a number.
Then there were problems. Turns out that one quarter was nearly perfect. Good soil, highly productive, and had a good well. The second quarter was sandy, alkali spots, significantly less productive and had a well that was in trouble, actually sucked air at times. There was a huge argument about being fair. One son felt it was fair that each got a quarter. The son who got quarter two didn’t feel like he was treated equitably at all. See Entire Article