Registration Now Open
5 October In-Person and 1 Virtual Seminar in 2024!
WINNIPEG - SASKATOON - EDMONTON (In-Person & Virtual) - RED DEER - CALGARY
Great Scott!!! It’s the 45th anniversary of Agriculture Update for Professionals and we’re going “Back to the Future” or hopefully back to $25 canola. Costs are up, grain prices are down, I like my cows too much too sell and suddenly all the kids are interested in the farm. What’s a farmer to do but ask their advisors or find a time machine and buy land 45 years ago.
As farms continue to transition to another generation across the prairies, as Doc Brown says: “somethings gotta be done about your kids” and the increasing complexity of farm estates and risks in litigation. We’ll review and discuss structures, family conferences, conditions in wills and legal tools to prevent litigation and avoid the family fight. We’ll discuss how to prepare for estate litigation attacks for both the accounting and legal professions including: common cases, capacity attacks, undue influence, equitable reversal and retroactive planning.
This years seminar will do an indepth review of capital gain planning re-evaluating and comparing our past plans and identifying best opportunities to multiply the capital gains exemption in light of rate changes. We’ll take a look at opportunities for stop loss planning, debt forgiveness and our usual tips and traps.
We will also provide a historical look at the changes in farm planning and taxation since the start of the course and look ahead at the planning issues and concerns of family farms preparing their plans and estates in the future ahead. Finally, we’ll take an indepth look at practical uses for trusts and life estates in agriculture estate planning.
This year we are excited to be joined by John Poyser partner with Tradition Law LLP Estates and Trusts in Winnipeg, Wealth and Estate Law Group in Calgary and Toronto dealing exclusively with wills and estate litigation. In addition, the “Doc Browns” of farm tax Merle Good and Managing Partner KPMG Lethbridge Ebony Verbonac. On behalf of your speakers and Alberta Canola Producers Commission we look forward to offering our 45th Agriculture Update for Professionals. Your future is whatever you make it… make it a good one!
Joel Bokenfohr
Speakers 2024
To cover course topics this year we are pleased to be joined by John E.S. Poyser, Tradition Law LLP Estates and Trusts in Winnipeg, Merle Good, former Alberta Provincial Farm Tax Specialist and Partner GRS Consulting Ltd, Ebony Verbonac, CPA, CA, CBV, Managing Partner KPMG, and our host Joel Bokenfohr, MFRE, FEA of Farm Credit Canada.
John E. S. Poyser, B.A., LL.B.
John Poyser is a partner with Tradition Law LLP Estates and Trusts in Winnipeg. He practices in Winnipeg, Calgary and Toronto. In Toronto he is associated with WEL Partners, a firm dealing exclusively with wills and estate litigation.
His practice is limited to estate litigation and estate planning. He helps clients challenge or defend transfers of wealth made by wills, gifts and trusts.
Nationally, he is a past chair of the Wills, Estates and Trusts Section of the Canadian Bar Association (the “CBA”), and a past Deputy Chair of the Society of Estate and Trust Practitioners (“STEP”). Internationally, he sat as a member of STEP’s Worldwide Council from 2013 to 2016.
He wrote Capacity and Undue Influence, an eight-hundred page textbook first published by Carswell. John coauthored ten editions of a textbook for Carswell entitled The Taxation of Trusts, a Practitioner’s Guide and is a contributor to The Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal.
As well as Founding Editor of The National Concordance and is an Associate Editor of The Estates and Trusts Reports.
Merle Good
Merle worked as the Alberta Provincial Farm Tax Specialist for 33years and started the Tax Update Seminar series.
In 2012 Merle created GRS Consulting Ltd with his wife Peggy, providing professional expertise on farm succession and estate planning strategies and options. They have worked with over 1,200 family farms and presented 150 producer seminars.
Merle and Peggy continue to reside on their family farm near Cremona, Alberta and have recently welcomed their daughter Annessa and son-in law Brett to the farm as future successors.
Ebony Verbonac, CPA, CA , CBV
Ebony is KPMG Lethbridge managing partner in the tax group with KPMG in Lethbridge. Ebony works closely with her clients to determine succession strategies that make sense from both a tax and business perspective. Ebony has shared her expertise at various seminars, facilitated at many CPA institute tax courses and writes monthly articles for Alberta Beef Producers.
Joel Bokenfohr, MFRE, FEA
Joel focuses on assisting producers with decisions on succession planning, business structures, and farm financials. Joel has a Master’s Degree in Economics and farms in Sturgeon County with his family.
