April 28: Who Does What On Your Land? Who Will Do It In the Future?

The third Your Legacy, Your Land webinar was held on April 28, 2016.  The recording and slides can be found below. 

During this webinar, we reviewed:

• Understanding your assets and their value
• How you view your land (heirloom or a financial asset)
• Setting long-term goals for your land

Then we discussed getting on the same page with your co-owners.  Your co-owner  might be your spouse or maybe you are one of many family members.  How do you all get on the same page about the future of your land?  

• Have each individual examine their goals and values for the land
• Share those with the other owners
• Look for points of intersection

What to do if the current owners don't agree?

1. What is the problem: clearly identify the issue
2. Identify common goals
3. Identify barriers
4. Look for/brainstrom possible solutions
5. Make a decision

Worksheet 4: Who Does What On Your Land (word version) (pdf version)

Additional Resources

• Dealing With Family Conflict: Article for family forest owners by Clint Benz, Ties to the Land. 
• Managing Conflict in Family Business: Nine minute video about managing conflict versus resolving it.  For family business but still some applications for family landowners also. 
• Conflict Management Versus Conflict Resolution: Five minute video on thoughtful behavior rather than instinctive reactions. 
• Interpreting the Family Business Conflict Identification Tool Score: This ten minute video, while made for family businesses, does provide some good information about the different types of tension that you might experience in your family as well as different types of conflict (lack of communication, value conflict, discrepancies in expectations and unresolved prior conflicts).  The video discusses the Family Business Conflict Identification Tool. 

Next Month's Worksheets

• Worksheet 5 - Selecting Your Heirs: look at who your potential heirs are, think about how engaged they are with your land and how you might be able to increase that engagement.
• Worksheet 6 - Documents You Need For Your Estate Plan: Do you have all the important documents that you will need for your estate plan?  Does your family know where those documents are?  This worksheet will help you document this information.