Practical Planning

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Let’s make sure that what happens next protects your legacy, your family, and the operation’s future

Having a personal coach is valuable to assist you through the farm transition process. Someone who will initiate and propel kitchen table conversations with you and your family, develop a practical transition plan that is tailored to the dynamics of your farm business and the people involved, and help you reach the end goals.

  • Comprehensive succession planning

    As your succession coach we work through your ideas and goals to develop a plan that works for the entire family.
  • Support for the next generation

    We will help provide financial confidence for retirement while still enabling future innovations and developments.
  • Ongoing partnership and guidance

    We are here for the long haul, we provide ongoing support to ensure the plan stays on track and help with future adjustments as needed.

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“Dan gets it. He understands farming, he understands farm families, and he understands that our situation isn’t the same as our neighbour’s. Dan’s “out of the box thinking” enabled us to work through a difficult situation to design a plan that worked for all of us.

Third-generation dairy family, Ontario

 

Let’s talk about your farm

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Meet Dan

Working with someone who understands farming makes all the difference.

I grew up on a small dairy farm near Peterborough, Ontario.  Those early years taught me about working together as a family, helping your neighbour when needed, and how important community is to our success at work and at home.  I have operated my entire accounting career with those ideas.  I want to continue to helping families work through their challenges and build plans that will ensure their future success.

 

“You should not have to teach your accountant about farming”

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  • Deep agricultural roots and farming history

    Dan was born and raised on the family dairy farm; being the 4th generation he transitioned the farm from his father and now preparing the transfer to his son, a fifth generation.
  • 30+ years in agricultural accounting and planning

    An accountant and tax advisor with a major focus on farm families, always looking beyond the current tax year.
  • Independent and unbiased

    Dan is here for the families and not selling anything else.  He is here to develop your succession plan and to ensure you have the proper team to implement the solution.

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“We’d been avoiding the succession conversation for years because we didn’t know how to start it without someone getting hurt. Dan helped us work through those discussions with care. It started with a simple phone call.”

Multi-generational farm, Southwestern Ontario

A process built around your family

Each plan is tailored to the dynamics of your farm business, the people involved, and the end goals – no plan is a one size fits all. Time invested in a proper plan will ensure that it meets the needs and is viable to address the concerns and financial realities of both generations. The best plan is to start discussions early!

  • Discovery Conversation & Assessment

    We start with an in person, no cost – no obligation meeting to get the lay of the land and ensure we are the right fit.
  • Deep-Dive, Roadmap & Planning

    Through multiple family meetings we will dig deep to fully understand your family, your farm needs, and develop your pathway to achieve your goals.
  • Implementation & Follow-Through

    We are here to support and guide you and your advisory team for the long term, to ensure your plan stays on track and is adjusted as needed to meet your evolving family needs.

What we’ll work through together

Our coaching process will lead you through the emotional and financial challenges that most farm families are facing. Having a dedicated coach as your central coordinator and trusted guide relieves the uncertainty and anxiety during this transition process. One step at a time, we will address these challenges by working through the following program and create your plan.

  • Family meetings

    Family meetings are imperative to the success of the operation and any transition plan.  One on one and group family meetings ensure a safe space for everyone to present their ideas and thoughts.  Many families struggle with this process, it is not always easy to fully express our thoughts with other family members.  We take the time to understand everyone’s ideas and goals, this is the key foundation for a successful transition.
  • Feasibility analysis

    The family is ready to transition the farm, but how are we going to pay for it?  We will dive deep into the current financial picture, current finances of the operation, and then prepare a projection for upcoming changes and developments.  It is imperative to fully understand haw this operation can support the families involved, now and for the long term.
  • Summary of plan and review with advisory team

    Now we have gone through the complete analysis of the operation, we have taken into account all family member’s ideas and thoughts, and we have prepared a transition plan the works for the family.  The next step is to bring in your advisory team, your accountant, your lawyer, your banker, and your financial advisor.  We review the plan with them, gather their thoughts and ideas to ensure it is the best from a tax and legal standpoint.  We also need to ensure your banker is involved to ensure any new financing required will be available as planned.
  • Implement the plan

    We are here to coach everyone through the process.  We will ensure all advisors stay on track and that the plan is implemented as the family intended.  We will keep regular communications and updates to ensure the plan stays on track and nothing is missed.
  • Follow up and ongoing support

    Most succession plans are prepared and implemented, but then all the advisors go back to their other files and work.  The family can be left wondering, did everything actually get done?  What do we do now?  We are here for the long haul, we will provide you with a complete package of filed documents, summaries of the process, and how everything is to work going forward.  We will follow up with regular meetings to ensure all parties are working as they agreed, and if adjustments are needed in the future we will help you pivot in new directions.

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Your Farm Succession Coach will ensure your plan is the right plan for you and your family, and we will guide you through to the end.  It all starts with a conversation.

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What this could look like in real life

Every farm family and farm operation is unique, there is no one size fits all. We work with families across Ontario and Canada.

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A third-generation dairy family had three adult children—two wanted to keep farming, one didn’t.

  • Does the farm operation need to be changed to accommodate multiple families?
  • How do we provide something to the non farming child but not jeopardize the financial future of the farm?
  • How are the two farming children going to run the farm together?

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A multi-generation family cash crop farm currently operated by two brothers each with children wanting to come into the farm— how do we bring cousins into the operation?

  • How will management decisions need to be handled to allow everyone to be heard?
  • Are there different tax rules transferring our operation to our nephews or nieces?
  • The children are different ages, how does one come in now while preparing for the other to come into the operation in a few years?
  • Should the operation be separated into two operations, one for each family?

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Your family and your farm are important to you, let us us help you succeed.

Ready to Talk?

Questions families usually ask

You and your family may have many questions and concerns, no question is too small or irrelevant. Let us help you address them one by one through a safe and non judgmental process. Open conversations will lead to the right transition plan for you and your family.

Most firms that do succession planning are simply there to prepare the plan and implement whatever piece they are responsible for and then they are done.  As your succession planning coach, we will be there to support you and guide you through the entire process.  We lead the entire team, coordinate their pieces, and ensure everyone stays on track and on time.  We are here for the long-haul, and will follow up after the plan has been implemented to hold people accountable and adjust the plan as your family’s needs change.

Your accountant and lawyer do not focus their complete time on succession planning.  They provide their clients with a wide range of services, one of which may be succession planning.  It can be very challenging to balance all the services they provide as well as accommodate the time when farmers are typically available.  Our only focus is succession planning; we are here for you and we are not selling you anything else.  There can be many internal business issues that need to be worked through before your accountant or lawyer needs to get involved.

The process starts with a conversation.  We will come to your farm, meet your family, and discuss your farm operation and your family’s concerns.  We work through our analysis and prepare a plan that is acceptable to all your family members involved.  The timeline for the process will vary depending on your readiness to actually transfer the farm.  The process can take only a few months and some can span multiple years.

This is a major decision for you and your family and it will determine the future success of your operation for many years.  The proper time invested now will ensure the right plan for your family.  We want to take the time to truly understand your operation and your family’s goals and objectives.  This may require multiple meetings and time to gather all related financial information.

Consider the cost of no succession plan, taking into account both the financial impact and family unity? Costs will vary from family to family as the complexity of the operation and the number of family members involved are the main factors determining the total investment.  We will assess the operation and family needs in our first meeting, and after that an Engagement letter will be issued to define the scope of our work and a projection of the budget.

It is always the right time to start!  The sooner we start working on a plan the more options we will have available to work with.  The actual implementation of the plan may be in a year or more but the planning needs to start now.

Our initial consultation is no-cost to you.  Even if you don’t think you are ready, there will be issues you need to start thinking about.  We can help guide you and start you in the process.  You may not actually transfer anything for years down the road, but a proper plan will guide you to your end goals.

Sometimes clients start the process and realize they are simply not ready to proceed with anything yet.  At least we have started the conversations and provided you with ideas and issues that you need to consider.  When you are ready to continue working through a plan, we will be here to support you.

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Have more questions? That’s completely normal.
Let’s sit down and talk through what matters most to your family.

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Let’s start a conversation about your farm’s future.

Fill out the form, and we’ll reach out to set up our initial conversation.

Prefer email or phone?

Email: info@practicalplanning.ca
Phone: 705-927-1090

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