Rick McElroy is a managing partner with Glenwood Financial Partners based in Raleigh. Rick, what are some things that farmers need to be concerned about that they might want to talk to someone like yourself about?
Well, first of my I have found from life’s experiences and my grandfather had a farm and so far the cotton gin fertilizer plant, but the farmer and community hasn’t been exposed enough to know who to trust and the business and that’s something I get it. But I just would like to have a breakthrough moment. When farmers at least listen to what we offer. It’s it’s a kindness and compassion type of business is that type of approach. We’re not salesmen. We earn no commissions. We have no products. We’re paid just like in my former law practice days, we’re paid to do the right thing. It’s fee based. It’s conversational. Our introductions are very, very straightforward. It’s just like you’re hearing my voice now. This is how we talk. It’s nothing more than that.
Rick, one of the big issues with farmers is the property or estate succession. What are some of the issues that you’ve run into there and and how you can help farmers work through those issues?
Sure, one of the things that’s heavy on everyone’s mind is the current estate tax exemption expires in 2026. Now where that’s going, we don’t know but right now husband and wife can cover about $25 million, give or take. That’s a pretty big number. But you know, in our lifetimes, they state tax exemption was only $625,000. Probably less. So. I mean, you’re talking about some major, major gap there. Where are we going? Are we gonna stay the same? Are we going to reduce it? That’s just an issue. There’s some things to do in advance. I mean, the estate tax exemption, this also applies to giving so if someone were to give away property that could use up husband or wife could use up approximately $25 million, give or take whatever the exact number of years but during their lives, and sure that’s used up the estate tax exemption and, and there’s a little bit as always of the unknown. Where are we really going and is that really the answer, but we don’t give legal advice. We discuss legal issues, no legal advice I eventually want to direct someone to one of my fellow attorneys who, by the way, don’t practice any longer one of our fellow attorneys who can handle that question.
Is that what’s known as the death tax?
You’re right, yes. And we had a great increase in that several years ago, but they had an expiration date and just to make life interesting for the Congress. So that’s gonna come up and be a big I’m sure political football at some point.
Recently in North Carolina, Medicaid was expanded. And one of the target demographics was farmers What can you say to that break?
As far as Medicaid goes, and if it applies to your life? That would be a question about it. But one of the most one of the concerns would be what can I keep what can I pass on to my heirs? How is my property treated, particularly my real estate? How’s it treated? When I’m seeking Medicaid help in terms of health care, and there’s a lot of misinformation about that. There’s some very good expertise available. attorneys that can tell you and it’s a better picture than you may have heard on the worst case for sure. I would just encourage anyone to ask questions. I can certainly and so they can make referrals to people that can help you with that. But that specific can specifically help with that.
When a farmer is looking at retirement they’re looking at and maybe passing it on what are some of the things that maybe they haven’t thought about that that they could talk to you about to get them in the right place for that.
There are two vehicles that are probably overlooked. One of them is a single person 401 K plan. That’s certainly something that’s available if you’re doing it the right way. The other is a SEP IRA that stands for Simple employer pension. Plan. And that is something that an entity certainly can establish, and that allows you a percentage of income up to a pretty substantial amount, but it’s at least $25,000 a year. But that’s just something for the specifics I’ve ever discussed and, and be right on top of that number. But a SEP IRA is just something you might want to look into. I can’t say that I’ve ever been a farmer but I have been very familiar with my grandfather’s cotton production. His cotton gin as fertilizer plant is hurt, hurt cattle. The fact that he based his business on a lot of trust and trust means you sell the fertilizer on credit and the spraying and you get paid when the crops come in as those are smaller farmers of course, but that was a huge factor and a lot of people’s lives. He did really well with that. Trust went both ways. Their trust is everything. I mean, if you say trust, you’re talking about trust and everything that is whether it’s access, follow through investment, knowledge, investment, experience, confidentiality, pretty big deal. But everything that we do, if you put it you can put under the umbrella of trust and that’s what we do our our greatest gratification really comes from the trust that we’re showing. I mean, that’s the truth. That’s our entire our entire organization. The trust we are shown is what really drives us personally. It’s great to make a living, but the gratification is what it’s all about.
Rick, if people want more information on Glenwood Financial Partners, or they would like to get in touch with you, how can they get that information?
Well, the easy way is to go to our website, Glenwoodfinancialpartners.com and we have a lot of information there we have some have about a dozen audio messages there. We have other just some summaries about our firm. We have some publications, some written publications which helped them there under the term blogs. We can also call us direct there’s the conversations will be very, very personal and and confidential. And our phone number is 919268 4100. And we welcome all calls. We welcome all questions when you speak with us. It’s not a sales call. It’s an introductory call. It’s an educational call with kindness and consideration.
Rick McElroy with Glenwood Financial Partners, thanks so much, really appreciate it.
Thank you. My pleasure to be here.