Reading Time: 4 minutes Simply put, an executor is a person you trust to carry out your wishes as you have designated them in your will, which could include the care of your children, dependants, assets and farm business after you die. Robert Graham, a lawyer who specializes in business and farm succession planning with Smith Valeriote Law Firm […] Read more
Summer Series: What is an executor?
[Make It Count: Finance 101] What makes you so sure you’ve named the right person to make all those decisions for you when you’re no longer here to make them for yourself?
Summer Series: What is a cohabitation agreement?
[Change Management] Better ideas on prenups that will protect the farm from broken relationships
Reading Time: 4 minutes Although most of us know them as prenuptial, “prenup” or interspousal agreements, the legal term most often used in Canada is a cohabitation agreement. Within the Canadian legal system, a cohabitation agreement is used to describe a written contract between two people entering a common-law relationship or marriage. Other jurisdictions may use other terms, but […] Read more
Summer Series: Preparing a business plan for your farm
[Change Management] Whether the change you’re looking at is big or small, the experts insist a business plan will make it more successful
Reading Time: 5 minutes A business plan is like a road map for your farm. You can plan your route, set a destination and track progress. But without a map or a plan, how does a farm business owner know what success looks like? Or what you’re capable of achieving? And, most importantly, how do you decide which changes […] Read more
Summer Series: What is a legal trust?
[Leadership] A trust may be the right solution for your toughest succession and legacy issues, but proceed with care
Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s only so much time in a busy farm owner’s day. Here’s how can you help your farm manager develop their leadership skills, so you can focus on the big stuff.– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor The easiest way to think of a trust is as a legal relationship between parties — a settlor, trustee […] Read more
Summer Series: Leadership skills key to farm success
[Leadership] Two farm families share how they came to see getting stronger at farm leadership as the key to their growth
Reading Time: 6 minutes Being your own boss, making your own decisions, reaping the rewards of your hard work. Self-employment has its perks as a farmer. But as every farmer also knows, self-employment has its risks and its downsides too. You’re the one who’s accountable, you’re the one who has to keep yourself motivated, you’re the one who’s always […] Read more
Summer Series: What is a joint venture?
[Best Advice] Practice becoming increasingly useful for getting the next generation started
Reading Time: 3 minutes A joint venture can be a great way to test a business relationship. It can also be a way to help the next generation get started. Follow this best advice for setting up and running a successful joint venture.– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor Corporations, partnerships and joint ventures are the three most common business […] Read more
Summer Series: Advice for Young Farmers
[Best Advice] If there was one piece of advice you wish somebody had given you (and that you had listened to) when you were just starting out on the farm, what would that be?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Once they’ve been in the biz for a few years, some farmers wish they hadn’t followed certain advice. Others wish they had. And others are happy with what they’ve accomplished based on advice they’d still follow if they had to do it all again. Here, a few farmers share what they’ve learned and offer their […] Read more
Farm managers take to the field (2)
Professional farm managers control huge acres south of the border. Are they coming to Canada too?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Across the U.S., the title “Accredited Farm Manager” is among the country’s fastest growing professional designations, driven by the surge not just in rental acres but also in absentee landowners and in non-ag investors. The question is, are we going to see more farms run by professional managers in Canada too? In fact, the farm-manager […] Read more
A woman’s voice at the money table
More women own farms and have key management roles running them. So why are women still ignored when the talk turns to finance?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Heather Little farms with her husband in Amaranth, Ont., and is a realtor with Royal LePage. She recalls the treatment she received from lenders when she bought her first farm with her husband nearly 20 years ago, a time when the lenders she dealt with were predominately older males and insisted they deal with her […] Read more
Farm managers take to the field
Huge chunks of American farmland are getting farmed by professional, accredited managers who work for families who don’t want to farm anymore, but also don’t want to sell
Reading Time: 6 minutes Professional farm management is serious business south of the border. Now, based on today’s trendlines, most insiders are predicting it’s only going to grow and spread. Will it grow in Canada too? Country Guide will look into that question in our next issue, but it’s worth pointing out that the share of farmland that’s rented […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
