For Farmers

There are certain financial planning problems that relate directly to farming.

Before the farm is sold

Farmers often have a high asset base but low cashflow. Where other business owners can semi-retire or employ a manager to do their job, many farms in the greater Auckland region are not significantly economic in terms of cashflow. This can make semi-retiring or employing a manager difficult.

In addition, the nature of farming is personal, and where everyone has their idea of how something should be run, finding someone who you would be happy to have run things may not be easy.

Succession planning can also be difficult. Farms are not purchased cheaply and where someone is lucky enough to have a son or daughter who wants to continue the farming tradition, they may also have a number of other children. Passing the farm to one child whilst being fair to any other children, can be tricky.

Endeavour can help you plan around these issues and with the help of an accountant and solicitor, can often achieve a 'win' for all parties.

After the farm is sold

Many investment advisers do not understand that when they are talking to a farmer who has ‘cashed up’, they are not just dealing with one person's money, but potentially the accumulated wealth of 3 or 4 generations.

The pressure to not make a mess of this can be so great that either; no advice is taken from anyone, and the cash simply sits in the bank, or worse still, decisions are made to invest in the absence of any kind of unbiased advice.

After a ‘life of farming’, ‘not farming’ holds a number of special challenges that should not be underestimated as many find this transition difficult. Because of this Endeavour prefers getting to know someone well before any considered sale.

Endeavour can help with

• A plan to help retire from the farm
• A strategy for succession planning that is fair to all parties
• Asset planning and estate planning
• Determining what to do with any accumulated insurance policies
• Successfully investing the proceeds of a farm sale to ensure capital protection over the long term