Business and farm succession planning answers a question ordinary estate planning does not: what happens to something that has to keep operating after you stop. A farm, a practice, or a family business cannot simply be divided among heirs the way a bank account can.
The hard part is rarely legal. It is deciding which child runs it, how to treat the children who do not, and whether the operation can carry the cost of buying anyone out. The documents follow those answers. Buy sell agreements, operating agreements, and trusts are how a decision gets enforced, not how it gets made.
Land makes it harder still. Virginia farm families are often asset rich and cash poor, so a plan that looks fair on paper can force a sale of the very ground it was meant to keep in the family.
The articles below cover the pillars of farm and business succession in Virginia, entity choices, and how to keep an operation intact across a generation. To start the conversation, see our services.
