Latest / Buying Local Podcast / S3E24: Protecting your Farm’s Future with Megan Harris-Pero

Transcript

S3E24: Protecting your Farm’s Future with Megan Harris-Pero · Buying Local Podcast

0:00
Welcome, everyone, to Buying Local.
0:01
I'm your host Mike Nelson with Five Towers Media, joined today
0:05
by Megan Harris Perot. And I say that because if you
0:10
listen to the show, you always know I mess up everyone's name.
0:12
And we just had a whole conversation about the etymology
0:16
of Megan's last name. So Megan, welcome to the show.
0:20
Thank you for joining us from the Harris Perot Law Firm.
0:24
How are you? Thank you, Mike.
0:25
Great. Yep, you got the last name
0:27
Harris. I got, I got.
0:29
It I try to make fun of myself as much as as much as possible.
0:32
Megan. So, so Megan, just to kind of
0:36
educate the listeners a little bit on who you are and and what
0:40
you do at your law firm. Why don't you kind of give us
0:42
the the rundown here about who is Megan Harris Peril?
0:47
Great. I, I run a, a law firm.
0:52
I'm an attorney and manage a law firm.
0:55
There is a team of eight of us, 2 attorneys right now and then a
1:00
lot of other people on our team that help get and keep things
1:03
moving. We're located in Saratoga
1:06
Springs, NY and we do estate planning, which is like wills
1:11
and trusts, healthcare proxies, powers of attorney, a state
1:15
settlement, which is the probate of a will and trust settlement.
1:22
And then something called elder law, which is basically estate
1:28
planning, Medicaid planning for retiring individuals or retired
1:34
individuals and included with that Medicaid applications and
1:42
then business law. So business formations or if a
1:48
partner is exiting a business, that sort of thing.
1:51
And we help all sorts of individuals and families, but we
1:56
also have a niche of helping farmers and agricultural
2:01
businesses. Oh, nice.
2:04
I know you and I obviously we, we have had coffee before and
2:08
talked about the, the farmer connection, which of course I'm
2:11
very, I'm all about that right close to home for me, what it
2:18
sounds like there's like a wide breadth of services that you
2:22
offer like that sounds like a lot.
2:24
Is that like for two attorneys and and you know, I would say a
2:28
large support staff, right? Yeah.
2:32
Well, they all, all of these same things kind of overlap and
2:37
we, we really focus on helping people be planned and prepared
2:41
for emergencies. I think one of our core values
2:46
is really caring and helping. And I kind of think of it as,
2:52
you know, not every family has someone in the family that is
2:57
good at the paperwork side of things or the administrative
3:01
side of things. So we kind of get to be that
3:05
person for a lot of our clients. And while it does seem like a
3:11
lot of things, a lot of them really overlap, especially when
3:15
you're talking about helping a farm client.
3:18
Because then you have you have personal estate planning, like
3:25
anyone has to deal with power of attorney, healthcare proxy, will
3:30
and maybe a trust. But you also have a business
3:33
there, a farm that you want to succession plan around and land
3:38
that you want to protect. So all of it kind of combines
3:42
together really well. What?
3:46
Well, how long you been practicing?
3:50
Well, that's a good question. So I started the firm in my
3:54
basement in Saratoga County 10 years ago and I'm grateful to
4:00
say it. It just took a year or two to
4:02
move out of the basement and then kind of organically grew
4:07
out of different office spaces. So now we're, we're in a
4:12
comfortable space for our, our team of, of eight.
4:16
And but be prior to that, I worked at a really large global
4:22
law firm, did a lot of real estate and the exposure to some
4:28
estates and trust planning for a few years.
4:31
And before that I worked in not for profits.
4:34
So I really came at law with a caring sort of personality type.
4:40
And I'm fortunate to have found a field within law that, you
4:45
know, we do get to care for our clients and their needs.
4:51
Well, and I mean so well, first of all, big milestone 10 years,
4:54
right? Thank you.
4:56
Yeah. Are you throwing a big pardon?
4:59
I, I don't, we haven't quite figured that out yet.
5:02
It's, it'll be this July. That will be 10 years and it's
5:07
quite amazing. You know you, I don't.
5:10
I would say the Gray hairs are helping me feel my age lately.
5:15
But you know, often times I think we think of ourselves as
5:18
younger. So to think of 10 years having
5:21
gone by since I started the firm, it's pretty exciting.
5:25
Yeah, well, it is exciting. And for the record, we don't
5:28
call them Gray hairs anymore. We call them wisdom highlights.
5:32
Oh, yes, I actually at home I always call them my wise hairs.
5:37
So I I have a similar name for them, yeah.
5:42
Yeah, they they just seem to keep creeping in, you know, What
5:45
are you gonna do? Yeah, but yeah.
5:48
And I think COVID made that cool.
5:50
So my I have two children and they tell me not to dye my hair
5:55
because it's it's cool. It's cool.
5:58
It's cool. Yeah.
5:59
I, I feel like, what's her name? Like Tulsi Gabbard's got that,
6:05
that Gray thing going on that she's really been rocking here.
6:09
It's and it's just making it cool, you know?
6:11
Yeah, it's acceptable. It's it's less work so it's good
6:16
all time. So you have kids, so you're.
6:19
Yes. Working mom running a law firm,
6:22
raising kids. Right, working mom, 2 teenage
6:26
daughters, which, which, when I tell my clients that they're
6:29
like, I'm sorry. And, and it is, I love my
6:33
children. Raising teenage girls is very
6:36
difficult. And, and I'll say I have a
6:40
terrific, A terrific husband and he definitely played a part in
6:48
the growth of this law firm and I wouldn't have been able to do
6:51
it without him. And I, I do think that's
6:54
something that's sometimes missing about the stories of
6:58
small business is the spouse and, and how a lot of times a
7:03
spouse or a partner, you know, can really help help their
7:09
spouse or partner, you know, grow right and, and help be the,
7:15
the safety net or help pick up the kids and things like that.
7:18
So I'm very grateful. Yeah, yeah.
7:23
And, and I'm sure that you, you know, from the time in your
7:26
basement to even now, there's a lot of late nights on laptops
7:29
sitting on the couch trying to catch up on things and keep it
7:32
going. And business owners, you know,
7:34
you don't ever get to like punch out and go home, so to speak,
7:36
right? Like you're always bringing your
7:38
business with you no matter where you are and what you're
7:40
doing, so. Having fun, absolutely.
7:43
I would say that that's something for every small
7:47
business owner knows and and anyone thinking about starting a
7:51
business should know that it's a never ending job.
7:56
But I have, I've learned a lot, I think especially in the past
7:59
few years about delegating. And our team is really great and
8:07
supportive and it, it takes a while to kind of learn what you
8:10
can delegate and pass off and having that trust and, and your
8:14
team to take care of things. But we have we have a great team
8:19
right now and things are flowing really nicely.
8:22
Yeah, yeah. And delegation is definitely a
8:24
skill, one that I'm not great at but trying learning.
8:28
More Yeah, well, one one thing about law is it's a practice.
8:36
And when you think about it, a lot of things are a practice.
8:39
So I know that your significant other is into yoga, right.
8:44
And the practice of yoga, which is something I'm interested in
8:48
too and that's that's a practice.
8:51
So is law. And I think small business, any
8:54
of it is a practice. So we just show up every day and
8:57
do our best and just keep practicing.
8:59
Keep. Practicing this for sure lots,
9:05
lots and lots of practice. Now your world.
9:09
I like, I know a little bit about what you do in estate
9:13
planning and trust and that you know, but again, like to say
9:18
that I know a little bit it really, I mean, I know a little
9:20
bit, right. And because it's just a
9:23
staggering like the amount of stuff that is involved in with
9:28
the laws, the rules, the regulations and all the things
9:31
that go into having a state plan, making sure it's set up
9:34
properly, making sure that you're following the laws and
9:37
dotting the I and cross it. I mean, it's it's absolutely
9:40
staggering. Like, how do you, how do you
9:43
stay on top of all that? Well, I mean learning things
9:50
over time and it improving as we go definitely happens.
9:55
We're also very active in the New York State Bar Association.
10:00
So we tried to keep up with changes and there certainly have
10:06
been a lot of changes in the law over the last few years.
10:09
And then, you know, and then we're all waking up to, in the
10:13
newspaper to things changing all over the place.
10:15
So, so there, there are a lot of things that change And, and then
10:22
also just things you, you see similarities between fact
10:27
patterns with clients over time and, and you kind of learn some
10:31
different techniques or different options for people.
10:36
And, and we're big on options too, 'cause we don't, there
10:40
isn't really, there's not typically A1, there's not A1
10:43
size fits all estate plan that you can shove at someone and
10:47
say, here's what you need. You know, there's, there's
10:50
facts, specific situations and different goals.
10:54
So it, it's really kind of fun. I think it's fun because we, we
11:00
kind of, we get to know the facts of what it, what are the
11:07
goals and then apply this set of rules essentially that.
11:13
And you know, what are the changes in the rules?
11:16
And a big thing is, well, what if the rules change and what if
11:20
the facts change? So I often describe us as worst
11:25
case scenario planners. And I apologize to clients when
11:30
they come in because sometimes I'm going to bring up, you know,
11:35
what if, what if this happens to a family member?
11:38
What if that happens? And the purpose is not to, you
11:45
know, think through all of this scary stuff to be scared.
11:50
But if we create a plan and it's on paper, then our hopes are
11:56
that in the end, the client will feel the relief that no matter
12:01
what emergency situation could happen, there's a plan in place
12:07
for them and for their family really to handle anything.
12:14
So I mean, that's really why we do it.
12:17
And it's, it's fun to kind of put the the plan in place and,
12:22
and see people at ease, although people respond to this kind of
12:28
planning differently and we know that too.
12:30
Yeah. Yeah, I know.
12:32
So we were talking a little bit before we started recording the
12:34
show and you know, you had mentioned something that was
12:38
interesting to me because I have a, a kid in college right now.
12:42
And you were mentioning something about which I think a
12:45
lot of people don't really know about with kids going away to
12:49
college and things that you want to put in place for when that
12:51
happens. And I know we want to get into
12:53
the farming, but I just want to ask this question too.
12:55
I can you tell me a little bit more about that and and for our
12:57
listeners? Absolutely.
13:00
So when kids are getting ready to go to college or they're
13:04
graduating from high school and, and getting into their first
13:08
job, I think, you know, we're all so excited about graduation
13:12
on the next chapter. But I think from a legal
13:16
standpoint, people don't always think about the fact that my
13:20
child is now legally an adult means that I have a little less
13:28
like supervisory control or ability to automatically help in
13:33
an emergency situation. So we, we offer a college
13:41
preparedness package, which is a healthcare proxy and power of
13:45
attorney and try to encourage young people, you know, entering
13:52
adulthood, turning 18 to come in and have a consultation or by
13:58
teams have a consultation. We discuss the healthcare proxy
14:03
and power of attorney and help them put those into place.
14:07
Because, you know, anyone can have a car accident, just, you
14:12
know, these an emergency can happen to anyone.
14:16
So as soon as you're 18, it's important to have those
14:20
documents in place. An 18 year old may not
14:24
necessarily need a will yet because maybe they don't have
14:27
assets that are significant enough for that.
14:30
If they have a bank account, there are, you know,
14:33
recommendations we can make for that.
14:37
But a healthcare proxy and power of attorney is a good idea for,
14:40
for everyone because it empowers that individual to, to, to name
14:47
the people that they would want to be in charge of your their
14:50
healthcare decisions and in charge of their money, bill
14:53
paying, things like signing off on their taxes, all of those
14:59
sorts of things if they couldn't handle those things themselves.
15:03
Yeah. Which again, is not really
15:05
something that you think about, you know, like whether or not I
15:08
can call the hospital and get an update on, on my daughter or
15:12
something. Where to help?
15:13
It's not really like you said, you're so focused on graduation
15:16
and getting them off to that first semester.
15:18
It's not really something. Yeah, for me, I and I think it's
15:22
funny, I, I didn't go into this field thinking about this.
15:27
But now that I'm in this field, looking back, I realized that,
15:32
oh, this is, this makes so much sense that I'm helping people
15:36
through this because my older sister had a car accident at the
15:41
age of 16 and has a traumatic brain injury.
15:46
So she's alive, but with a brain injury and a conservator just
15:51
like the Britney Spears had, you know, and we don't call them
15:57
that in New York. We call them a guardian.
16:00
But it's this the same thing And but you know, she didn't quite
16:06
make it to 18, but I saw with her that a car accident can just
16:10
change her life, right? So and that can happen to any of
16:14
us. So just having simple documents
16:17
in place for all of your family members can make things easier.
16:22
Yeah, and hard to know what you need until you need it, right?
16:25
Right, right. So it's like, you know, we
16:30
sometimes we have clients, but I'm like, you know, you're going
16:33
to pass away, right? Like occasionally when you're
16:36
the one who thinks they're going to live forever.
16:38
But you know, we all know that that's going to happen.
16:41
We we don't know if, you know, incapacity is going to happen
16:46
and someone's going to need to manage things during, during our
16:49
lifetime. But it's still, I think if it
16:52
kind of like having the umbrella and then maybe the rainy day
16:56
will never happen because you have it in place.
16:59
But if it if it does happen, you know, you have the right people
17:03
to take care of you. And I think that's so important
17:07
for us to designate those people for ourselves.
17:12
Yeah, yeah. But better you get to make the
17:14
choice than someone making the choice for you about who gets to
17:16
make those decisions. Absolutely, yeah.
17:19
So I know we want to talk about farm stuff.
17:22
Yes. Yeah.
17:23
So and you were kind enough to connect me to a few farmers in
17:29
the area, which I'm very grateful.
17:30
Thank you. So why don't just, you know,
17:33
just tell us a little bit about how you work with farms
17:37
specifically? Yeah.
17:39
So actually, I'll tell you first about why and then.
17:45
And then? And then the how 'cause I think
17:46
the why is kind of fun. So I, when I left Big Law and
17:55
moved to, moved to this area, I moved for my husband had a
18:01
promotion opportunity and, and we just loved the area and
18:06
thought, yeah, we want to spend the rest of our lives, our lives
18:09
here. And we spend a lot of time in
18:16
Essex County, which is really which is rural part of it, you
18:21
know, in the Adirondack Park. And then there are a lot of
18:24
small farms. And I was kind of looking around
18:29
knowing I wanted to do estate planning, but I think from my
18:33
also from my not-for-profit background, also kind of wanted
18:38
to think about, well, who do I want to help?
18:41
And from especially from Essex farm up in in the town of Essex,
18:48
they were kind of bringing in a lot of young farmers training
18:53
them. And then you saw a lot of this
18:56
was around 10 years ago, a pop up of a whole bunch of little
18:59
farms in the area. And, and actually some like
19:05
cross circulation with Saratoga County also, which, which is
19:09
kind of fun to see. But so kind of knowing that that
19:15
there was this exciting new, new populate, new population of
19:21
young and beginning farmers kind of getting going.
19:25
That really inspired me to say, what can I, what can I do to
19:30
help this population like I, I know they need planning to what
19:34
do they need? So I went to every farm
19:39
conference in the area that that I could find out about.
19:43
I talked to people who do I need to speak with, you know, did
19:46
some good old fashioned networking.
19:49
And I remember speaking with David Haight of American
19:54
Farmland Trust and among many others.
20:00
And I found a program called LEAD New York, which is out of
20:06
Cornell. And it's a two year program for
20:09
developing leaders from various professions to help advance
20:17
agriculture in New York State. And I was lucky they picked me
20:21
to be a member of their their group.
20:24
And it's a two year commitment. We we were a group of people
20:30
that got together at different places in New York State for
20:33
leadership training and got to tour farms and talk about issues
20:39
with agriculture in New York State.
20:41
And then the second year we went to DC and learned about federal
20:46
sector and we also went to Canada and culminated in a trip
20:53
to Vietnam and the Philippines to look at agriculture
20:56
internationally. So that was a really great
21:02
connector for me and eye opener to different types of
21:07
agricultural businesses in New York State.
21:11
Most of our clients today are still small farm clients and
21:17
they and we help them with the same sorts of things that we
21:21
help other small businesses except that we we are aware of
21:30
like different programs for farmers and some different tax
21:33
advantages and things like that. So we have a good network of
21:40
like tax advisors that typically work with farmers that we
21:44
commonly work with and other organizations that help farmers
21:52
with technical assistance, meaning including, although I'm,
21:59
I'm not sure if the funding is in jeopardy, but but some of
22:04
these organizations would receive funding to help pay for
22:08
our services and business consultant services and things
22:11
like that. So one of those organizations is
22:15
Hudson Valley Agri Business Development Corporation.
22:20
And so they serve mostly Hudson Valley, but some some they've
22:25
assisted with some clients like up in Washington County,
22:28
Rensselaer. And so we do farm succession
22:36
planning. But it it that kind of it
22:39
depends on the facts and the goals like with anyone else.
22:43
So sometimes the farmers don't have healthcare proxy, power of
22:49
attorney, a will or a trust in place and and they may not know
22:56
where they want the farm to ultimately go yet.
23:00
Maybe they are thinking of selling or they're not sure
23:04
which child is going to take over.
23:07
So sometimes it's just having the basic documents that
23:12
everyone else has in place, in place, but kind of being aware
23:18
of the special assets or circumstances they have or, and,
23:23
and having some of the conversations like So what
23:26
happens to the cows if you just pass, if you pass away tomorrow,
23:30
you know? That was going to be one of my
23:31
questions, Like what? Yeah, it kind of tricky with all
23:34
the different things that are on farms or the situations of how
23:39
farms are set up. Like I know there's a lot of
23:42
farms that don't even own some more all of the land that
23:45
they're farming on, they're leasing it and they're long term
23:47
leasing. What happens with all of that?
23:49
And there's assets, but there's also liabilities and, and
23:52
figuring out that whole plan, I'd imagine it's staggering.
23:57
Yeah, it's it often times takes a lot more time than than other
24:03
as other plans. Yeah, especially like I can
24:09
think of one client where there are these great ideas of where
24:14
everything's gonna go, but there are loans and, and how are the
24:17
loans gonna get paid off? And if the money's going to
24:20
these people, but you're leaving the assets that that are, you
24:25
know, essentially leaned to these other people, like trying
24:28
to figure out, yeah, they're really they're.
24:32
Really inheriting liens at that point.
24:34
Right, right. So we, we need some liquidity,
24:37
like is there a life insurance policy or do we want to rethink
24:41
where the assets go? So, you know, all that, all that
24:46
stuff that that might scare people from doing anything.
24:50
I say like bring us the facts, you know, and, and let us let us
24:54
play with it. And it reminds me of one of my
24:58
law school professors who just always said it depends.
25:02
Like, that's the famous legal answer.
25:04
You asked the question. It depends.
25:07
What are the facts? Yeah.
25:11
Yeah, it's I So do you see a lot of, well, I guess I would
25:17
imagine that like when you're sitting down with someone, you
25:19
really have to like you said, like develop like what's the
25:23
overall grand plan of things? Do do you find that you end up
25:27
having to either make a lot of recommendations that are outside
25:32
of your legal scope or bring in experts to help, like whether
25:36
it's wealth managers or financial people that kind of
25:40
help them navigate that? Like, what does that look like
25:42
when you're putting that plan together with them?
25:45
It I wanted to say it depends, but but for farmers commonly we
25:55
might recommend, oh, that one resource is New York farm net.
26:04
So New York farm net was that that was created to because
26:11
there was acknowledgement that farmers would had, I think
26:15
probably still do have a high suicide rate.
26:18
It's farmers take it exceptionally personally that
26:23
their job is to, you know, feed us.
26:26
You know, when you think about it, we all eat every, every
26:29
single day, at least three meals a day.
26:31
And farmers have that very important job of they're
26:35
producing, you know, food in some form or fashion to end up
26:40
on someone's table. So if, if they have a bad year
26:44
and if, if finances are dire like also it could put their
26:51
family farm at risk like there, there's a lot of pressure for
26:54
farmers. So New York Farm Net is a free
26:59
service for farmers that is a support for that.
27:04
Any farmer can can call and see if they can provide assistance,
27:09
but they will provide business consultant services and also
27:12
social work services. So that is a resource that a lot
27:18
of our our farmer clients might take advantage of, especially
27:23
when they're thinking about succession planning or if
27:26
there's any tension in the family between different
27:28
generations. I early on in the firm, I went
27:35
through a mediation training, which was really great and I did
27:39
a little bit of mediation for there's another group called the
27:44
New York State Agricultural Mediation Program.
27:49
And that that's another service where it, it's hopefully is
27:54
still grant funded and can provide free mediation for
27:59
farmers in a dispute. But I quickly learned, you know,
28:05
people didn't want to pay an attorney to be a mediator and
28:10
it's better to have the one hat and to pull in mediation
28:15
services or advise that that clients go seek those when when
28:21
warranted. And then there are business
28:23
consultants. Let's see, Farm Credit E has
28:28
some great business consultants. You pay for those services.
28:33
You, you have very skilled people assisting you and, and
28:39
then farmers have financial advisors, you know, often times
28:44
just like like any of us and they can come from all sorts of
28:49
places, although there are some that typically work more with
28:52
farmers than others. But a big difference that is,
28:57
you know, farmers are really investing in land and, and what
29:03
they need for the farm, right? So, so that is protecting that
29:09
land sometimes from Medicaid, from a Medicaid lien potentially
29:17
is something that we're sometimes looking at for the
29:19
smaller farms also. Yeah, it's, well, yeah.
29:24
I mean, think about farms. Think about like farm equipment,
29:27
the land. But like farm equipment is
29:30
ridiculous. And you get with you, you know,
29:32
even small farmers have equipment out there.
29:35
They've probably got hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not
29:37
more. If they're a large, you know, if
29:38
they're using the large, if they're in large tracts of land,
29:41
they could have $1,000,000 John Deere tractor out there.
29:43
You know it's. Right.
29:44
Yeah. Wild.
29:45
And then what do you do with that stuff, making sure it's
29:49
going somewhere? Yeah.
29:51
Well, if, if you have that a lot of that expensive equipment,
29:55
then you, you wanna, you wanna structure your business so it's
29:58
gonna survive and you're hoping to pass it on to next generation
30:03
or another farmer or bring up a worker and hope that they start
30:11
to take over. So it really varies for people,
30:15
but it is exciting like different kinds of assets and
30:21
what I like sometimes for the farmers.
30:24
So we we have a basic questionnaire, but they usually
30:28
have a schedule from their tax return with a list of all their
30:32
equipment and that's kind of fun to look through sometimes.
30:37
You know, as you're talking, I was wondering, like, to me, my
30:41
experience with farmers is most farmers are usually long term
30:44
planners and you know, 'cause they always have to be looking
30:49
at next season, 2 season, 3 seasons, depending on what
30:53
they're growing or raising, if they're on the livestock side of
30:55
things. But you're always looking down
30:57
the road. And so I'm just wondering, like,
31:00
does that automatically make farmers an easier client when
31:06
dealing with this kind of stuff? It depends.
31:08
It depends. On the farmer.
31:11
It depends, you know, it's it, it's funny.
31:15
I'll just say from a, from a business perspective, we were
31:20
talking about delegating earlier.
31:22
Like another good business tip is having a process, right?
31:28
And I, I know like our business has improved.
31:33
We're not perfect, we've made mistakes and, but a lot of times
31:38
mistakes can be reduced by having a process and a
31:43
consistent process that you, you go through.
31:46
And I, I laugh sometimes because we, you know, we have weekly
31:51
meetings and we check in on the issues and was it a process
31:56
problem like what happened? And sometimes I have to remind
32:00
myself like we, our team can have the greatest process, but
32:06
we are constantly engaging with different people all the time.
32:10
You know, each client is so different and one is fine on the
32:15
computer, for example, and another like doesn't touch them.
32:19
And the farmers are the same way, you know, So you, you have
32:24
to meet people where they are and have adaptations for your
32:29
process at, at the ready to try to make things easier for people
32:34
so that it's not so intimidating.
32:37
Yeah, I always call my team that because we're the same way.
32:39
We're a small business, but we we try very hard to have
32:42
processes in for everything that we do so that it's consistent
32:45
and repeatable and easier for new people to learn, but also
32:48
better for us to execute in the end, better for our clients.
32:52
And you know, to your point, right, like what I say is like
32:56
clients are always going to try to pull us out of our process,
33:00
not because they're trying to do something nefarious.
33:02
It's just they just they don't know what our processes are.
33:04
And they have a view in their mind of what they want to do.
33:07
And that's going to pull us out of our process.
33:09
And our job becomes to get them back into that process at the
33:13
earliest possible time. Right.
33:16
So it's the to you like like you said, yeah.
33:19
They are. Don't make it confrontational.
33:22
Guide them gently and get them back into the process and try to
33:25
nurture them through it. But yeah, it's, it's
33:28
interesting. It's always a always an
33:31
adventure. Yeah, but that's what I mean
33:35
that that makes this fun and exciting and it also what's
33:41
interesting the time we're in with AI and computers and and
33:47
just the the competition online and who will it will make a will
33:52
or a trust for you. And I, I am not, I, I know that
34:01
our product is better, right? Because people are not robots,
34:08
you know, they are not, you know, a blue block and a red
34:12
block and a yellow block makes this kind of person, you know,
34:17
people have experiences and they say, I'm not going to use the
34:20
computer anymore. Or I do use the computer, but I,
34:25
I don't share this kind of stuff.
34:27
Or I, you know, I, the LegalZoom thing isn't going to ask them
34:33
about the, the cousin that wronged them and what happened
34:37
and, or that they want to leave money to that cousin, but they
34:41
don't want to leave money directly because the cousin has
34:44
mental illness. And, well, what does that really
34:47
mean? And what can we do and not do?
34:49
So I think that people and farmers are, we're complex, you
34:57
know, and, and we, and we have different goals.
35:00
So we we try to recognize those in the office and and really put
35:07
together something that is gonna work for various scenarios and
35:12
tries to address those goals. Yeah, yeah.
35:16
So I know we're getting short on time, but I, you know, if, if
35:21
you're a farmer and you don't have these things in place, or
35:25
maybe even if you do, you know, what would be one piece of
35:29
advice that you would give someone in the farming community
35:33
as far as long term planning, right from a legal, you know,
35:39
from, from what you do standpoint?
35:40
What would that be? I would say if they don't have
35:46
anything in place, that regardless of your age, if
35:51
you're an adult, you need to have at least some basic estate
35:54
planning documents in place. Because again, anyone can have a
35:59
car accident. But you're, when you're talking
36:01
about farmers and tractors and, and machinery, you know, you
36:06
increase the risks from your like I sit in a computer most
36:11
days or at a table. My job is a little bit less
36:14
risky. But the farm clients, usually
36:17
they have more risky, more of a risky profession.
36:22
So they should have those documents in place.
36:26
And I see a lot of farmers thinking, well, I mean, I think
36:31
there's just a thought. Well, I'm not ready to pass away
36:34
yet or I don't know where the farm's gonna go.
36:37
And I think just like when you're a parent and you, you
36:41
might feel like, oh, I don't know who I would name as a
36:44
guardian for my child if I wasn't there, You have to just
36:48
think about today. Like, what if something happened
36:52
today or tomorrow? What would be the best option
36:56
for now? And it's scary to think about.
37:01
But our thoughts do not become reality, you know, or we'd all
37:05
be in trouble because we all have thoughts sometimes that are
37:08
scary. And thankfully those do not, you
37:13
know, become reality just because they popped into your
37:15
head. So kind of allowing yourself to
37:19
think through and create that emergency plan, I think is, is
37:26
good for you and your family and your business and right and the,
37:33
and the because for farmers too, it it's that that pressure of
37:37
you, you provide in your business provides food for
37:41
people. It might provide a legacy of
37:44
land. It also might be mean jobs to
37:47
people. So you owe it to all of those
37:51
people to have something in place, even if it's not your
37:55
final succession plan. And I think that that that
38:01
applies to a lot of people feel like, well, I just haven't done
38:05
my will yet, you know, because it's like I'm not ready to go.
38:10
But you're probably going to have a new will at some point in
38:16
your life if you if you're really going to keep yourself
38:19
prepared because you change and your business is going to
38:23
change. Well, and you know, as you're,
38:25
as you're talking too, it's my, my question becomes like from
38:29
everything you said at the beginning of the show and then,
38:31
you know, relating specifically to farmers, having those things
38:34
in place gives you at least some level of control as to what
38:39
happens to your farm, your livestock, your equipment, your,
38:44
you know, whatever it like it gives you some level of control
38:46
about what happens should something happen to you.
38:49
But my so my question is, what if you don't have those things
38:52
in place? What happens?
38:54
Oh, New New York State has a plan for you, you know.
38:58
Well, they used to have really good plans, so I'm not.
39:01
They have a, they have a great plan.
39:04
So the thing that that surprises most people is if you have a
39:11
spouse and children, everything that you own does not go to your
39:17
spouse. Your spouse has to share those
39:20
assets with the children. It's not 100% everything to my
39:24
spouse because. And, and I think that surprises
39:28
a lot of people because, you know, you, you don't think of
39:32
your kid getting a share in there.
39:33
You just think everything's gonna go to your spouse.
39:36
So yeah. That's kind of what I thought.
39:38
Yeah. So that's kind of the most
39:39
surprising thing that New York State has in place.
39:43
And then I would say like for healthcare, you know, it's, it's
39:49
the defaultest spouse, but then when you and then I think it
39:53
goes parent, so your parents and then your adult children.
39:58
I'm pretty off my memory. But then what if you have more
40:02
than one child and is your relationship with those children
40:06
all the same? And you know, which is which of
40:10
the children are the ones that you would really want to make
40:13
medical decisions for you because.
40:16
You know, I, I love my two children dearly, but they,
40:20
they're different. You know, I have two daughters
40:22
and they're, and they're very different.
40:24
So, you know, anyone that like when clients say, oh, all my
40:30
kids feel the same? Do they really, You know, and I
40:35
think it's a lot of pressure to put on kids when you, when you
40:39
haven't figured out who should make a decision.
40:44
Like you're gonna let them decide and Duke it out.
40:47
Like if they've ever fought about anything, they're gonna
40:49
fight now. Oh, kids never do right?
40:53
Never played about anything. Yeah, my kids are angels all the
40:56
time, right? Oh, well, listen, I, I just, I
41:02
wanna say thank you for coming on the show, Megan.
41:04
I really appreciate it. Appreciate what you're doing in
41:06
the farm community. And I know when we spoke, you
41:09
were talking about all sorts of farms.
41:12
I, I didn't even know we're out there.
41:13
So I was excited to learn about some new local farms and, and
41:16
about a bunch of different organizations.
41:18
Also, I was familiar with some and others I've never heard of.
41:20
And so I started looking them up and there's a lot of great
41:23
support out there if people are able to find it.
41:26
So, you know, thanks for doing what you do.
41:28
Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you.
41:31
So, yeah, thank you so much. And I think we're in a great
41:35
region for agriculture. And I just, I just want to also
41:40
encourage listeners to support our local agriculture, but join
41:45
ACSA, you know, which means pay for a share of farm fresh food
41:51
and get go to events or get connected with Saratoga Plan and
41:56
Agricultural Stewardship Association.
41:59
And just it's important that we support these small farms so
42:02
that they remain here in our area.
42:06
Yeah, 90% of farms in America are, are on that do under
42:10
$500,000 in revenue and we're losing about 150,000 of them
42:16
every year. So yeah, it's it's it's amazing.
42:21
And if you, if listeners want to go look at the Agricultural
42:27
Stewardship Association's website, the ASA website, they
42:31
have a cool interactive map, I believe, where you can see what
42:35
farmland they've preserved with a conservation easement.
42:40
And you know, they're charging each year.
42:43
They're like charging through trying to conserve more and more
42:46
acreage. And I think, you know, it's at a
42:50
time right now where funding it for these things is kind of
42:53
questionable 'cause some funding does come through through the
42:58
federal government, a lot of it from the state for these
43:02
easements. But I think it's an important
43:04
time if, if this is what you care about to to look out for
43:09
these organizations for sure. Yeah, yeah.
43:12
And it's an easy thing. We have so many farmers markets
43:14
in Warren, Washington, Saratoga County.
43:16
I mean, it's the easiest thing to go and support a local farmer
43:18
like or going to Buckley's Farm or any of these other farms that
43:22
are able to sell consumer direct.
43:24
I mean, it's, it's, it's important help keep them alive,
43:26
keep them going. Yeah.
43:29
Megan, if yeah, you're welcome. If you want to learn more about
43:33
you or more about your firm and how you can help them, how do
43:35
they find you? At saratogawills.com and on
43:40
there we also have a whole page with videos for about farm
43:45
succession that I did with the Adirondack Land Trust.
43:49
So there's a whole lot of information on there, but
43:52
Saratoga wills.com. Perfect.
43:55
And are you on the the social medias at all or are you guys
43:58
out there in that land? We are on Facebook, Instagram
44:02
and LinkedIn and now next door and we we would love we would
44:10
love more followers. We have some really creative
44:13
posts and not a big enough audience.
44:17
I would say all. Right.
44:19
So, so get out there everybody and follow them on What's the
44:24
next door app, right? Yeah, that we just, we just
44:27
joined because it seems like people are talking on there so.
44:31
There's some conversations going on for sure.
44:33
Oh yeah. Megan, thanks again.
44:37
I appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your day and
44:40
I'm sure we'll we'll see you again soon.
44:43
And thanks everybody for listening.
44:44
Of course, you can find us Buying local podcast is on
44:47
Spotify, Apple, YouTube and Rumble, and you can get all
44:52
those links if you head on over to buying local, dot US and
44:56
click on the media links. It's got our podcast, it's got
44:59
our blue collar startup podcast. And also we just launched a new
45:03
podcast that we're producing for Steven Zabala from Green Fork.
45:07
The podcast's called Food for Thought.
45:09
He's got some really interesting things going on over there.
45:11
So check it out and you'll hear from us next week.