"A fiduciary is someone who has the responsibility of taking care of assets or money for another person or group of people. Any time money and other people are involved, you have a serious responsibility."
"Many people may want their children to come back home, but to me it would be hard to suggest changing any plan until a child invests both their time and money for a period of time to determine if they are serious. To me that often sounds like someone wanting to take from the farm not add to it."
After watching semis unloading at an ethanol plant make small problems that put a simple system into disarray, Myron Friesen reflects on how small problems in an estate plan can turn into bigger problems and fights for farm families.
The challenge with life insurance — unlike drying corn, which we know will occur each fall — is that we don’t exactly know when “later” is, we just know “later” could be anytime after reading this sentence. You know someone’s going to need the money; it’s just a matter of when.
For me, the word "normal" commonly comes up when talking with a family. People usually say something like, “We’re kind of a normal family,” or “We’re not really a normal family.”
In regard to farmland, parents often feel pretty sure they know who would keep and who would sell land. Their observations are based on how children have valued money in the past and how they spend money in the present and the future generation. They may also assess spousal influences and other family-related issues.
For the most part, those in agriculture have been good about loading the wagons, but once in awhile, we can lose our focus and start to worry about the mules. Let’s take a look at some examples.
