Pre-nuptial agreements would benefit younger farmers

MARRIAGE break-up is traumatic for any couple. It is particularly painful where there is also a family to be considered, and arrangements for their future must be put in place.

The hardship is further added to in the case of a farming couple, where the consequences can also have a very direct effect on the parents who transferred their family assets — the farm — to a son or daughter before their marriage.

It has been a harrowing and heart-breaking experience for many elderly farming parents who devoted their lifetime to building up a farm to pass on to the next generation, when marriage break up results in the sale of the holding. It is happening more and more frequently these days — which is why many parents are now being legally advised to defer transfer of the family farm, which runs contrary to the progressive approach of getting more of the land of the country into the ownership of younger farmers.