A one-day event at Goonoo Goonoo Station near Tamworth will help farming families and their advisers navigate one of the hardest conversations in agriculture: how to pass on the family farm without breaking the business or the family.
Regeneration will be held on Thursday 6 August, hosted by Tamworth-based succession planning specialists Proagtive. The event is aimed at current and next-generation farm owners, as well as the accountants, lawyers, financial advisers and insurers who guide them through succession.
Fewer than one in five farming families are estimated to have a formal succession plan, and only about 30 per cent of family-owned businesses survive into the second generation. Left until retirement, illness, financial pressure or conflict forces the issue, succession decisions become harder and place more strain on both the business and family relationships.
Rather than sitting through theory alone, participants will follow a lifelike farming family case study as specialists work through the legal, financial, insurance, wellbeing and relationship issues involved. The interactive format will show how each specialist approaches the same family scenario, the questions they ask and how their advice fits together to support a workable succession plan.
Proagtive Founder Isobel Knight said succession planning was too often left in the “too hard” basket, when it could be one of the most valuable conversations a family ever had.
“Succession planning isn’t about paperwork – it’s about people, and about keeping Australian farms in the hands of Australian farming families. Regeneration is our way of bringing the experts into one room so families can see exactly what’s involved, ask the hard questions, and walk away knowing the first step they can take,” Ms Knight said.
Past attendee Elyse Montgomery married into a farming family after growing up in the city, and found that raising succession planning early was met with fear, resistance and dismissal in the wider family.
“We came away with a completely different starting point than we expected,” Ms Montgomery said. “My husband liked the practical, hands-on side of the day, while I found real value in the conversations around life insurance, wealth creation and understanding each other within the family unit – it offered something for us both. Three of our neighbours were at the event too, which felt like real momentum in the next generation’s approach to succession planning.”
The event will be guided by Buy from the Bush Founder Grace Brennan as MC and delivered by specialists spanning the succession process, including Ms Knight, Jason Misso of Misso Wealth Management, Petrea King of the Quest for Life Foundation, Mark Everingham of Personal Risk Professionals Insurance Brokers, and Patrick Ellwood of Clover Law.
The program will also address common beliefs that stop families from starting the process, including that their farm is not large enough to need a succession plan, that raising the topic suggests there is already a problem, or that the family will simply work it out when the time comes.
Regeneration runs from 9 am to 4 pm at Goonoo Goonoo Station, 13304 New England Highway, Timbumburi, on Thursday 6 August. Tickets are available via Humanitix.
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