Farm & Ranch Legal Services in Southeastern Nebraska

Farm and ranch law covers the full range of legal needs that come with operating an agricultural business — entity formation and governance, land purchases and sales, cash and crop-share leases, easements and access agreements, water and mineral rights, equipment and livestock financing, employment matters, succession planning, and disputes with neighbors, tenants, or family members. Our firm grew up with southeast Nebraska agriculture and serves farm and ranch families across southeast Nebraska and Northeast Kansas.

Successful farm transitions usually combine several tools — a will or revocable trust, an LLC or family partnership to hold the land, lifetime gifts of minority interests, buy-sell agreements among family members, and life insurance to equalize between farming and non-farming heirs. The goal is to keep the operation viable for the next generation, treat all of your children fairly, and minimize Nebraska inheritance tax and federal transfer taxes along the way. The earlier you start, the more options you have.

It depends on your goals. Many Nebraska farm and ranch operations use an LLC or family limited partnership for liability protection, simplified management, and flexibility in transitioning ownership to the next generation. Others use S corporations or C corporations for specific tax reasons. The right structure depends on how the operation is run, who's involved, what assets are held inside versus outside the entity, and your long-term succession goals. We help clients choose, form, and maintain the structure that fits their operation.

Yes — even a handshake deal between neighbors deserves a written agreement. A well-drafted lease addresses the term and renewal, rent or crop-share terms, responsibility for inputs and improvements, conservation practices, fencing, hunting rights, termination notice (Nebraska generally requires written notice by September 1 to terminate a year-to-year farm tenancy), and what happens if either party dies or sells. Clear terms up front prevent most of the disputes we see later.

Carefully — and usually over time. Many Nebraska farms were incorporated as C corporations in the 1970s and 80s when it made sense under then-current tax law, but pulling appreciated farmland out of a C corp today can trigger a double layer of tax: corporate-level gain on the deemed sale of the asset, and shareholder-level tax on the distribution. There's no single fix, but options worth evaluating include converting to an S corporation (and managing the built-in gains period), structured redemptions of shareholder stock over time, leasing land out of the corporation rather than distributing it, gifting shares to the next generation, and coordinating with your overall estate plan so that a step-up in basis at death can do some of the work for you. Every situation is different, and the right path depends on the corporation's basis, asset mix, shareholder makeup, and family goals. This is one area where getting tax counsel involved early pays for itself many times over.