Death is a certainty for all of us. Because of this and because of the inheritance rights and interests children have in the property of parents, there always will be problems of transferring property between generations. The problem is frequently complicated by having to provide for a widow as well as children, because women usually survive their husbands. In farming, a further complication usually arises from having only one farm and several children plus a desire to treat all children equally. On top of all this, most parents must depend on the farm or business and its income for support during their old age.

Faced with these problems and not knowing what to do, many families do nothing or delay planning until it is too late.

Listed are resulting problems from poor planning or lack of planning:

• Land, especially farms, has been split into small, uneconomical units when divided under the state inheritance laws. The combined value of the small units when sold separately would not equal the value of the farm when sold as a total unit, nor could the smaller units be separately operated as efficiently as the whole farm.
• The heir has not been adequately compensated for his contribution to capital improvements, his labor and management, and the care of his parents. Under state inheritance laws, he shared equally with older brothers and sisters who had not made similar contributions.
• A widow with young children was unable to sell or mortgage property to provide adequately for the children under guardianship after her husband died without leaving a will.
• Wills have been challenged for incompetency of or undue influence upon parents who waited too long to make a will.
• Land has been divided and subdivided so that it becomes difficult to get mineral leases on an entire tract inherited by widely scattered co-owners.
• It was necessary to sell much of the estate, because no provisions had been made for payment of taxes and other costs.
• Estate taxes have been greater than they would have been if some other method of distributing the estate had been chosen.
• The farm-operating heir often has been saddled with an impossible debt load. This sometimes results from attempting to buy out the other heirs at an unreasonable price and on inadequate terms.
• Ill feelings and bitterness (resulting from lack of knowledge and understanding of the law) have often arisen among heirs.
• Estate depreciation and loss of income have occurred because of uncertainty as to who would become the eventual owners upon death of present owner.
• Parents have suffered from economic hardships from unexpected illness or disability. Not enough property was retained in the settlement to care for them adequately during their remaining years.
• Unnecessary problems have been created by not understanding implications of joint tenancy and life estate.
• Problems have arisen from failure to consider desired qualifications of an executor.