What Does Good Farm Succession Look Like?
Published: 10 July 2026 | Last Updated: 10 July 2026
For farming families, succession isn't just about who inherits what. It's about whether the farm survives as a working operation, and whether the family does too. Good farm succession planning looks a little different on every property, but the families who get it right tend to do a few things in common.
Start the conversation early
The best farm succession plans start years before anyone needs them, not after a health scare or a death. Early conversations give everyone time to understand the plan, ask questions, consider how they want to contribute and adjust to it, rather than being confronted with decisions all at once.
Separate fairness from equality
A farm often can't be divided equally between children whilst also maintaining a commercially viable operation. Good succession planning looks for ways to be fair to children who won't inherit the farm, through life insurance, other assets, or structured payments, without carving up land that needs to stay whole to remain viable.
Recognise who's actually worked the farm
Children who've spent years working the land alongside their parents are often in a different position to those who built a life elsewhere. Acknowledging that contribution, without dismissing the other children's place in the family, is one of the harder, and more important, parts of getting succession right. And there may need to be recognition of unpaid wages and contributions to the grown of the farm capital and operations as part of the asset allocation.
Get the structure right
How the farm is held: as a partnership, a company, through trusts, or a mix, affects how succession actually happens, and what it costs in tax. This is where your lawyer and your accountant need to be working from the same page, not in separate conversations.
Getting this right isn't just about the handover you can already see coming. A well-designed structure also lays the groundwork for the succession after this one, giving the next generation a flexible, well-governed base to build on as the family grows, rather than something that has to be pulled apart and re-built every time ownership changes hands.
Build the right team
Farm succession touches on legal structuring, tax, property transactions, estate planning and often superannuation all at once. The families who navigate it most smoothly tend to have a lawyer, an accountant, and sometimes a financial adviser and facilitator working together, rather than getting advice in silos.
Put it in writing, and keep it current
Many farming families find it useful to document the overall plan itself in a deed of succession: a single, clear record of who gets what, when, and on what terms, agreed to by everyone involved. It becomes the reference point the rest of the plan is built around.
From there, your will, trust deeds, and partnership or company documents are updated to reflect and give legal effect to what the deed of succession sets out. As the plan is actually implemented over time, those supporting documents are revisited to keep them aligned with it. Because farms and families change, the whole picture should be reviewed regularly, not set once and forgotten.
This is where we can help
We work with farming families across right across NSW to plan succession that protects both the farm and the family relationships around it. We have clients in Central West NSW as well as Walgett, Holbrook, Coffs Harbour, Coonabarabran and the Central Coast. So we know that business, property and every family is different, and that's exactly how we approach it.
By Jessica Spence | Wills and Estates | Orange NSW
This article is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Your circumstances are unique, if you have questions about your situation, please get in touch for advice specific to you.