Divide 400 acres three ways and you get 133 acres apiece. That sounds tidy until you notice that one sibling farms for a living, one wants to cash out, and one lives in Chicago and wants no part of the argument.
That is the situation behind a question from a listener whose parents, both in their late 70s, own a Pennsylvania farm that has been in the family since 1912. In the listener’s words: “They have never once talked to me or my siblings about what happens to it, but my siblings like to bring it up to me.” My answer to the “stay out of the middle” part was blunt: you are already in the middle, so you might as well do a good job while you are there.
Farmland Is Not a Family Business You Can Sell
When people hear “family business,” they picture something profitable with a buyer waiting. Farmland is rarely that. It is asset heavy, margins are thin, and the value of what you produce moves up and down every year. There is a reason so many government subsidies go toward farmers.
That matters because selling is not just selling. If the listener’s brother is farming the land as his livelihood, a sale also ends his income. This is one of the hardest dynamics we deal with in estate work. It is not a vacation house where the siblings can split the proceeds and argue about whose share is whose.
Start With the Number and the Question
Two things need answers before any structure makes sense. First, how much is the farm worth? At $10,000 to $20,000 an acre, I would guess somewhere between $5 million and $10 million, and more if it sits in a prime location. That also puts estate tax on the table, which is a risk worth checking early.
Second, does the brother farm this as a hobby or as the family’s income? Only the listener knows that. If it is the livelihood, one reasonable path is selling the portion that is already leased out, which could satisfy the sister without touching the land the brother works.
What Else Do Your Parents Own?
The simplest fix I can imagine is this: if Mom and Dad have $10 million in investments and cash alongside the farm, give the farm to the brother and split the cash between the other two. He ends up with an illiquid asset and a lifestyle he chose; the others skip the farm entirely. Everything equalizes.
I do not often see that, though. Because farming is not very profitable, the farm is usually the lion’s share of the estate, sometimes all of it, and there may be a house on the property that adds another layer. Without outside assets, there is nothing to equalize with.
When the Answer Is “We Are Not Selling”
Your father may look at all of this and say the farm is staying. I have seen that go several ways, and I do not think it is a bad idea. Each of the three siblings owns about 133 acres. The brother farms his share, or leases it. The listener and the sister lease theirs out. If the brother wants more ground, he leases it from them at a fair rate.
The sticking point is liquidity. You can get creative with life insurance and other structures, but the margins are not there for the brother to buy out his siblings’ 266 acres on a farmer’s profit. That is the problem to solve, and it only gets solved if everyone talks about it while Dad is still around to weigh in.
Start the Conversation With Your Dad
Your dad is in his seventies and still working the land. The conversation needs to happen now, and it should begin with one plain question: “Dad, do you want this farm sold, or do you want it kept, if the family cannot agree?” His answer decides whether the next step is a sale of the leased acres or a three-way split with leases, and the whole plan builds from there.
This post is adapted from a recent episode of the Scholar Wealth Podcast. For more perspective on keeping a family farm fair among siblings, watch the full podcast episode here.