Here at Eden Legal we regularly deal with complex succession planning matters for our farming and rural business clients. We work closely with our clients’ other professional advisors to make sure a suitable succession plan is put in place, tailored to each family and business and their unique circumstances. In a previous article, we set out some of the key questions to consider at the start of the process.
Having a detailed succession plan is crucially important but is often something that gets put off for a whole host of reasons – not least of which can be the costs of taking appropriate legal and tax advice.
The good news is that the Scottish Government’s Farm Advisory Service (FAS) provides grant funding for farm businesses to access specialist professional advice on succession issues, as well as a number of other things, and the level of support available has recently been increased from £1000 to a maximum of £1600 per plan.
The Government’s support quota was also reset on 4th July 2024 meaning that businesses that have used this grant support before will now be eligible to do so again.
This grant funding for specialist advice is open to all farming and crofting businesses in Scotland, provided that they are registered with the Rural Payments Department and hold a Business Reference Number (BRN) with IACS. More details can be found on the FAS website at this link.
For further information and advice on succession planning and the FAS funding available, please get in touch.