Head in the sand is not a plan

When developing a succession plan, the strong message from sessions on the topic at the 2026 Hort Connections conference was to start early.

Key points

• Start succession planning early
• Communication is key
• Bring in independent professionals
• Have a succession plan, not just a will

What does good succession planning look like and how and what can you do to give your family the best chance of achieving it?

Start the process early. Start talking about it with family early. Get specialist advice.

That was the clear consensus at two sessions at this year’s Hort Connections in Adelaide which brought together legal, financial and family psychology specialists to share their insights, followed by some real-life stories and governance strategies from three family business leaders.

“The sooner you start the process, the better the actual outcomes are,” said Marisa Riccio, CEO of accountant and financial advisory firm Hood Sweeney. “Communication through this process is key. Without it, we find that things don’t end up happening the way families had expected.”

Daniel O’Sullivan, Group Sales and Marketing Director at corrugated cardboard manufacturer Abbe said it had taken 10 years to resolve the fallout of a family separation and that waiting until a triggering event was too late.

“Have these conversations early before you need them,” he said. “Put the work in early; there are advisors and if you think advisors are expensive wait until it blows up.”

With the help of advisors, Daniel said the family had since set up an advisory board then moved to a family council to bring in members not working directly in the business, followed by a family constitution and most recently a Future Shareholders Agreement.

Family Business Association CEO Catherine Sayer, who moderated both sessions, asked the professional panel of Marisa Riccio, Andrew Andreyev from ADLV Law, and clinical psychologist Catherine Sanders of Bower Place for their insights on traps and tips for navigating succession planning.

(l-r) Sharing their professional insights on succession planning at Hort Connections were Catherine Sayer, Family Business Association, Marisa Riccio, Hood Sweeney, Andrew Andreyev, ADLV Law, and Catherine Sanders, Bower Place

What do families most underestimate?

• The time it takes – to understand the family dynamics, legal requirements, accounting and finance requirements.
• Understanding the business from a legal perspective, what you have got, where it is, how it is owned and what the legal structures are.
• Personal feelings and perspectives that have not been discussed.

Andrew: ‘I think there’s the expectation that your accountant has everything, but then there might be old wills from land that you’ve inherited or business interests you’ve inherited.”

How to manage fairness? Consider:

• on-farm siblings working for lower wages who may have the expectation they will get a greater share
• are there off-farm assets and can they be used to transfer wealth and improve fairness across family members
• if not enough off-farm assets, are there alternative means of compensation, e.g. monthly payments or debt, to buy businesses for the non-farming siblings
• spreading the obligation to pay out the off-farm people over a reasonable period of time to make it sustainable for the on-farm sibling
• paying children in your business a market wage or giving them an opportunity to buy into the farm/other farms to start their own legacy early
• communication is key
• having someone independent work with you and with your family members is key to a successful transition.

Marisa: “It is probably one of the most difficult intergenerational issues that needs to be solved through this process.”

Tips for successful succession

• Don’t put your head in the sand
• Allow the next generation the space to make decisions
• Seek independent advice to establish where you are at, what off-farm assets are available, where you want to get to and then set a roadmap.
• Open that bottom drawer and pull out all that documentation, have a chat or schedule some specific time with your advisors – your accountant, your lawyer, your conveyancer, your broker, your banker – and start assembling and getting familiar with your structure.

Catherine Sanders: “I’d say talk and listen, whatever age your children are. Begin to create the future together. Begin to have the conversations about what do we want to look like as a family, relationally, practically, in terms of the farm in five years and 10 years and 20 years, so the future doesn’t become this blank canvas that suddenly we’re starting to try and draw on without any understanding about what colour pen the other people have.”

Further reading

Succession planning: Are you ready? (August 2021)

Succession planning leads to multi-generational success (AFG, June/July 2018)

A guide to succession: Sustaining families and farms (GRDC, 2007)

This article was first published in the Winter 2026 edition of AFG.