Karina Jones is a real-life ranch wife in the Nebraska Sandhills and one of the most highly sought-after speakers in the cattle industry nationwide!
Here is the skinny on why estate planning is such a hot button item for me! Thanks for joining me today on Ranch Raised.
October is National Estate Planning Awareness Month and I will say that multigenerational ag operations are probably amongst some of the most guilty about avoiding this subject. I know this first hand. Our lives were drastically changed because of lack of estate planning. No matter how many times we tried to get the elder generation to consult with a lawyer, an accountant, or a banker, or anybody to get something in place to protect our and her financial and sweat equity we had invested, it was to no avail. Nebraska is a probate state and I will tell you, probate doesn’t have a heart. Probate does not care if you have been the operating party leasing the land and pouring your own equity into. It doesn’t matter how many receipts we brought forward for water tanks, fence, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent we had paid over the last two decades, it was deemed that those transactions were between us and the departed and not the estate. Probate is expensive and will cost the estate dearly to be settled. Probate is pretty cut and dry. All assets will be split equally between the heirs unless the heirs can agree on something collectively and I will tell you with these ag real estate values, you will have a better chance of finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
Without estate planning in place, operating heirs are doing nothing more than building a nest egg for all the heirs. You are sacrificing your future and the future of your family by leaning on hopes and paperless promises. Bottom line, estate planning should mandatory in today’s ag sector climate. Have the conversations now and start taking action.
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children near Merriman, NE. She grew up in western NE, with roots also in southwest SD. The cattle industry and raising kids is her passion.
Watching the cattle industry go the path that it has gone, she could no longer sit quietly at home checking cows, fixing fence, and doing all the everyday tasks wondering when some else was going to make it all better. As she became more active and outspoken on industry issues, she was asked to join the R-CALF USA staff in September 2020 as the Checkoff Petition Campaign manager. That position transcended into her former role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the Jones Ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
karina@youragnetwork.com or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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