KRBHK attorney John Rodgers recently worked with clients Phillip and Linda Hayes on creating a succession plan for the Hayes’ family farm.  Their collaboration is featured in the 2020 Tennessee Ag Insider magazine, a guide to the state’s food, farms and forestry published in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.  The magazine includes stories about the state’s top crops, livestock, agribusiness, tourism, food safety and local products.

Succession Planning Helps Keep the Farm in the Family

Tending to tradition

Family farms dot the rolling hills of Tennessee, and a degree of forethought is required to ensure a farming operation passes smoothly from one generation to the next.

Although Phillip and Linda Hayes knew exactly how they wanted the assets from their farm in Liberty to be distributed upon their passing, the couple had not put their wishes in writing – and their lack of a succession plan was a source of concern.

“We wanted it in writing because we knew that if there wasn’t written documentation, the state might make the decision [about how our assets were distributed] for us,” Phillip Hayes says. “We’d talked about it for years but had no idea how to get started.”

In 2019, the couple – third-generation farmers who raise cattle and hay – worked with John Rodgers, an attorney and partner in Kious, Rodgers, Barger, Holder & King, PLLC in Murfreesboro, to create a succession plan to guarantee that their wishes would be carried out.

Read the full article here: https://www.farmflavor.com/tennessee/succession-planning-helps-keep-the-farm-in-the-family/

This article appears in the Tennessee AG Insider 2020 edition here: https://www.farmflavor.com/tennessee/tennessee-ag-insider-2020/