Anyone can call themselves an estate planner. Not many have actually worked with a farm.
That's the problem Legacy List exists to fix.
Farm and ranch families deal with things a general estate planning practice usually hasn't seen up close. Multiple generations working the same ground. Land that's worth a lot on paper but doesn't throw off much cash. A kid who wants to farm and a kid who doesn't, and a plan that has to hold up for both of them. None of that shows up much in a practice built around city clients and stock portfolios.
Here's what's actually at stake. The average U.S. farmer is over 58 now, and only about a third of farm and ranch families have a real succession plan in place. American Farmland Trust estimates 40% of U.S. agricultural land will change hands in the next 15 years as landowners age out. That's a lot of family land changing hands in a short window, mostly without a plan behind it.
So we built a list. Every attorney, financial advisor, succession consultant, and tax specialist on Legacy List has real, hands-on experience with agricultural operations. Not a class they took once. Actual client work with actual farms and ranches.
Before anyone's added, we look at their actual client history for ag-specific work and confirm they're still taking this kind of client, not just handled one a decade ago and moved on. Then we check their credentials against the right source. For attorneys, that's the state bar's public license lookup. For financial advisors, it's FINRA's BrokerCheck or the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database, plus CFP Board's own site if they claim that certification. For CPAs and tax specialists, it's the state Board of Accountancy's license lookup. Succession consultants don't have a license board to check, so there we confirm real certifications, like an IFTN Farm Succession Coordinator credential, and real, recent hands-on experience with farm and ranch transitions.
No one pays a fee to get listed here, and we don't get a cut if you hire someone off it. No referral fees, no sponsored spots, no thumb on the scale. People make this list because we think they do good work for families like yours, not because they wrote us a check.
This isn't meant to be a directory of everyone. It's meant to be a short list you can actually trust. If that means fewer names than a search engine turns up, that's fine. That was the point.
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