The Larapinta View · Article
Working with your accountant and solicitor before and after a farm sale
On the table, before and after the sale.
The decision to sell usually comes slowly, then all at once. An agent’s appraisal, a neighbour’s offer, a conversation around the kitchen table about who wants to keep going.
Most families think the hard part is the sale itself. It isn’t. The most important work happens before contracts are signed, and a hundred smaller decisions follow after: tax, structures, wills, and where the money sits. Each one touches the others.
That’s where most families end up with three advisers who never sit in the same room.
The short answer
Before and after a farm sale, the accountant, the solicitor, and the wealth adviser should work as one team, starting before contracts are signed. The accountant handles the tax, including whether any small business CGT concessions apply and whether and how they might be used. The solicitor handles the trusts, wills, and who controls what. A family office like Larapinta plans what the money has to do once it arrives, and keeps all three working from the same plan. An accountant should bring a family office in as soon as a sale is likely, because the tax plan and the investment plan shape each other.
Who handles what
| When | Accountant | Solicitor | Larapinta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before the sale | Tax position, whether concessions apply, timing, entities | Who owns what, trust deeds, contract terms, control | What the proceeds need to do, for whom, and for how long |
| After the sale | Structure and tax over years, not one return | Deeds and wills that fit a family with money, not a farm | Investing, protecting, and stewarding the wealth, and keeping everyone talking |
Before the sale: where most of the value is set
A lot of the most important work is done before anything is signed. Depending on the family’s circumstances, the small business CGT concessions can make a significant difference. Whether they apply, and how, depends on the structure, the history of the business, and the timing, and that’s the accountant’s call. Whether they apply is generally worked out at the time of the sale, which is usually when the contract is signed, so the planning needs to happen before then, not after.
The same is true of the paperwork. Who actually owns the land, which entity sells, and what the trust deed allows all shape what the family can do with the proceeds. And the investment side matters here too: knowing what the money has to do afterwards helps the accountant and solicitor set things up the right way the first time.
Three trades, one family
The accountant knows the numbers: capital gains, concessions, timing, entities. The solicitor knows the paper: trusts, wills, deeds, who controls what. The adviser knows the money: what it has to do from here, for how long, and for whom.
On their own, each of them is good. Working apart, they leave gaps, and families pay for those gaps quietly, years later.
What goes wrong when they don’t talk
- Concessions are looked at too late, after the contract is already signed.
- Tax gets planned without the investment plan, or the other way round.
- A trust deed is written for a farm that no longer exists.
- Wills still assume the place will be passed down whole.
- Nobody owns the full picture, so the family ends up holding it themselves.
Who should be in the room, and when
Before contracts, not after settlement. One meeting with all three at the kitchen table, with the family in charge of it. Agree who leads and who reports to whom, then meet again once the money lands.
Questions to ask each of them
What should we ask our accountant before the sale?
Do any small business CGT concessions apply to us, and what needs to happen before contracts are signed?
What should we ask our accountant after the sale?
What does our structure look like now, and what does the tax look like over five years rather than one?
What should we ask our solicitor?
Who owns what today, and do our trust deed, wills, and powers of attorney still fit a family with money instead of a farm?
What should we ask our adviser?
What does the money have to do, and how will you work with the other two?
When should an accountant bring in a family office?
As soon as a sale is likely, before contracts are signed, so the tax and investment plans are built together.
Where Larapinta sits
We aren’t a replacement for your accountant or solicitor. We sit beside them, before the sale and long after it. We hold the whole picture, from the Foundation Portfolio to Conviction Allocations to Treasury Management, so the family doesn’t have to. The capability of a large firm, with the closeness of a small one. We drive out and sit at the table.
There’s more on wealth management for farmers, before and after a sale.
You spent a lifetime running the place with people you trusted: the agent, the vet, the bank manager who knew your name. Selling doesn’t change that. It’s just a different team, and they need to be talking to each other, ideally before the contract is signed.
For the families who built Australia.
Troy Armstrong
Senior Adviser & Founder
BCom (FinPlan), MFinPlan, SSA. Nearly two decades advising agricultural and regional Australian families. Founder of Larapinta Private. Based in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. Authorised Representative (ASIC AR Number 354299) of Capella Advisory Pty Ltd.