Latest news with #RabobankNewZealand
Otago Daily Times
15-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
White paper addresses succession challenge
Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris speaks at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Christchurch last month. PHOTO: SUPPLIED More than $150 billion in farming assets in New Zealand will require a succession process in the next decade, Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris says. Within the next 10 years, agriculture would need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth. More than half of all farm and orchard owners — more than 17,300 farmers and growers — would reach age 65, Mr Charteris said. At current land values, the transition of these farmers' operations represents a conservative estimate of more than $150b in farming assets, which will depend on a successful succession process. Mr Charteris launched a new white paper, "Changing of the guard", at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Christchurch last month. The findings highlighted the extent of the succession challenge ahead for the sector. "Succession is not a moment in time — it's a process that takes years of planning, conversation and adaptation. "The traditional model of passing the farm to the next generation is under pressure, but there are new and innovative models emerging that can help families stay connected to their land," he said. One in three farmers had a formal succession plan in place. A further 17% had discussed succession with the relevant parties but nothing was documented, leaving exactly 50% who had neither discussed succession nor started a succession plan. Research also finds one-third of farmers intend to pass their farm to their children, yet 39% report having no children seriously interested in farming. "Taking over the family farm involves committing to decades of indebtedness in a sector that is subject to volatility and uncertain returns. It remains a big call for a 20-something and their bank," he said. The paper highlights increasingly prominent succession models which are being adopted to help farming families stay connected to the land. — APL
Otago Daily Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Succession planning help
New farm succession planning workshops are in Otago this week. Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris said Rabobank was holding free one-day workshops for farmers about succession planning. The workshops were open to anyone and aimed to provide farmers with an understanding of business transition and succession and to aimed to give confidence to start and progress a succession plan. "We regularly ask our clients about the financial topics they want further information on, and this is one topic that has come up time and time again in the discussions our agri managers have with farmers and growers across the country." The new succession workshop topics include asset transfer, business continuance, intergenerational farm ownership, how to clarify roles and responsibilities, and identifying the next steps to make real progress, Mr Charteris said. Workshops would be held in Alexandra today and Oamaru tomorrow. A workshop was held in Balclutha yesterday. The Otago workshops follow a successful pilot event in Feilding last month. "We had about 25 farmers along to the pilot workshop we ran in Feilding and we had some really positive feedback on this." In addition to new workshops, the bank would launch a report, which examines succession on farm, at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Christchurch later this month.
