aka: How to Keep Cousin Randy from Selling the Cornfield to Build a Taco Hut

A family farm preservation trust is a legal way to keep your farm in the family—and out of the hands of developers or distant cousins with dollar signs in their eyes. It’s like a security system for your soil, ensuring the land stays in the family for generations without ending up as a parking lot.

Here’s how it works: the farm owner puts the land into a trust, which is managed by a trustee (ideally someone who can balance a checkbook and avoid drama). The folks who benefit—called beneficiaries—are usually family members or future generations who haven’t even picked their first pumpkin yet.

There are three trust types:

• Revocable Living Trust – changeable, flexible, and helps dodge probate court.
• Irrevocable Trust – permanent, but offers creditor protection and tax perks.
• Testamentary Trust – kicks in after you’re gone, via your will.

What does it do?

• Protects assets from divorces, bad investments, or that one relative who “just wants to flip it.”
• Plans succession—like letting one kid run the farm while the others get rental income (or maybe just a goat each).
• Avoids probate, which is basically legal limbo.
• Offers tax benefits, if set up early enough.
• Gives control, like requiring conservation or keeping the land 100% farm-fresh.

Bottom line: It’s a thoughtful, structured way to protect your family legacy—and possibly keep your great-grandkids from arguing over whether to turn the barn into an Airbnb. Just make sure to call in the lawyers—because DIY trusts are about as trustworthy as a rooster at 3 a.m.