The Setting the Stage for Succession: Tools for the Retiring
Farmer project sought to address the lack of information and planning resources
retiring farmers need to determine the personal assets needed to fund a viable retirement
lifestyle. The proposed audience for this project was retiring farmers in
Pennsylvania who were in the farm transition process or in the planning stages of
farm transition and this was the audience that was attracted to and attended
the in-person workshops. The project was delivered via a series of eight webinars with 249 attendees and two in-person workshops with 16
attendees.
The proposed outcomes addressed the human and financial sources
of risk faced by the target audience. The project did achieve the proposed producer
outcomes of: determining the major factors leading to the desired lifestyle
after farm transition; knowing how time will be spent in retirement; how to develop
a personal net worth statement; how to develop a personal budget to identify the
income stream needed during retirement; the major parts of Social Security and
how to apply for it; the major parts of Medicare and how to apply for it; and
how to create a personal budget to use during retirement. Two producer outcomes
proposed during the project were more difficult to achieve. While the project
proposed to utilize software to create a plan for participants to maximize
their Social Security benefits and create a comprehensive financial plan, for unknown
reasons, no participants took advantage of this opportunity. This project was a
valuable step to providing comprehensive planning resources to the retiring farmers
in Pennsylvania.