Mark Modzeleski, Legacy Wealth Advisors of NY, LLC
Over the last several articles, we have talked about a few important ideas.
First, if we do not know what we are trying to accomplish, we have very little chance of getting there. Second, we talked about the idea that successful succession and continuity planning is about far more than just money. It is about leadership, culture, communication, and making sure both the family and the business are prepared for change long before change is forced upon them.
Then we discussed the reality that fair is not always equal, and equal is not always fair, especially in family businesses and multi-generational farms.
This week, we are talking about something even more difficult: who leads when everything changes?
Most farms, when they begin talking about succession, continuity, or transfer planning, immediately focus on the financial side of things. Wills. Trusts. LLCs. Land ownership. Tax strategy. Profit interests. Buy-sell agreements.
Those things absolutely matter.
But throughout this series, I have tried to push the conversation beyond just the financials because the reality is this: a farm transition is not simply a transfer of assets. It is a transfer of leadership, responsibility, decision-making, and ultimately, control.
When families begin asking the “what happens if” questions, the conversation usually breaks into three categories.
Each one plays a unique and equally important role.
The financial planning matters because the farm needs stability and liquidity during transition. Leadership matters because people need direction and accountability. But perhaps the most overlooked piece is decision-making.
Who actually makes the decisions?
And maybe even more importantly, who will make them next?
It is not uncommon for me to sit at a kitchen table or in a farm office and know within five minutes who truly runs the operation. Even when people say, “We make decisions together,” you often hear phrases like, “Well, let me check with Dad,” or “I will see what Mom thinks,” or “We will need his approval first.
”Or the most revealing one of all: “We have never done it that way.”
The English language is interesting because people often tell you exactly how the business functions without realizing it.
I sat with one family recently where the grandfather was in his late seventies, the son was in his late fifties, and the grandson was in his twenties. We started discussing milk markets, expansion opportunities, land values, urban creep, and long-term sustainability for the operation.
Every single conversation ended the same way.
“Well, I don’t want to do that.”
“We have never done that before.”
“Grandma and I have always done it this way.”
“It has worked so far. Why would we change it now?”
And in that moment, it became very clear that the biggest barrier to the future of the farm was not taxes, debt, markets, or legal structure. The biggest barrier was control.
Grandpa still made all of the decisions, and whether intentional or not, nobody else had truly been given the ability to lead.
That is one of the hardest realities in succession planning.
Transition only works when people are emotionally ready to transition.
There are books written entirely around this concept, the idea that substantial planning is often useless until everyone involved is actually prepared to do what it takes to implement the plan.
Because ownership and leadership are not always the same thing.
Sometimes it is relatively easy to transfer percentages of ownership, gift interests in land, or assign shares of the business to the next generation. In many cases, that happens years before true transition ever occurs.
Why?
Because the senior generation still understands that the real control remains with them.
They still decide how money gets spent. They still make the final call. They still control expansion. They still approve purchases. They still dictate risk.
And because of that, the next generation may technically own part of the business without ever truly learning how to run it.
That is where problems begin.
One of the greatest challenges in farm transition planning is that the next generation often does not get the opportunity to practice leadership while the current generation is still there to guide them.
Imagine asking a professional athlete to compete at the highest level without ever practicing. Imagine asking a quarterback to start an NFL game without ever taking reps. A pilot to fly without training. A surgeon to operate without experience.
Yet that is exactly what many farm businesses unintentionally do.
We wait until someone gets sick. We wait until there is a death. We wait until retirement. We wait until an emergency forces change.
Then suddenly we expect the next generation to step in and perform at a high level immediately.
That is not transition. That is survival.
Real transition happens gradually. It happens when the next generation is allowed to make decisions while things are still stable. It happens when they are given room to succeed, fail, learn, and improve while experienced leadership is still present to mentor and guide them.
And perhaps most importantly, it happens when mentorship is not confused with control.
Mentorship is giving advice.
Control is demanding identical decisions.
Those are not the same thing.
Sometimes the greatest challenge for senior leadership is accepting that the next generation may not make the exact same decisions they would have made. And the reality is, they probably should not.
Agriculture changes. Markets change. Technology changes. Labor changes. Consumers change. Regulations change. The phrase “this is the way we have always done it” may be one of the most dangerous sentences in succession and continuity planning.
Because the way things were done twenty years ago may not be the way the farm survives twenty years from now.
That does not mean previous generations were wrong. In fact, the farm likely exists today because of their sacrifice, leadership, and work ethic. But successful transition requires enough humility to recognize that future leadership may need different strategies, different tools, and different thinking to move the business forward.
And that only happens when people are given the opportunity to lead before they are forced to lead alone.
So what does this mean?
Succession planning is not complete just because the legal documents are signed. A transition is not truly complete until leadership and decision-making are also being transferred.
The next generation needs practice. They need confidence. They need mentorship. They need responsibility. And they need the ability to make meaningful decisions while experienced leadership is still there to help guide them through the consequences, both good and bad.
Because someday, whether planned for or not, someone else will be making the decisions.
The question is whether they will have years of experience preparing for that moment or whether they will simply be thrown into the fire and expected to figure it out on their own.
The farms that transition successfully are usually not the ones with perfect legal documents. They are the ones where leadership was intentionally developed long before it absolutely had to be.