“I’ve been waiting 33 years for these boys to have this conversation!” Helen declared as she jumped to her feet. In that moment, I realized a lot about this family’s problems and, not coincidentally, the difficulties most people face in planning for succession.
Seventy percent of first-generation family farms will not transition to a second generation. Of those that do, 90 percent will fail in the transition to a third. And, of the few remaining after that, 96 percent will not make it to a fourth.