The very popular 2025 succession training workshop, Who Will Fill My Shoes: Succession Planning for Land Owners, Farmers, Forest Owners, and Family Businesses, has been released as an open access curriculum.
The Who Will Fill My Shoes? Curriculum, like the webinar, is designed to train Extension educators, consultants, legal professionals, and other professionals who can teach individuals, families, businesses, and forest owners more about the fundamentals and core components of succession planning. Covering both soft and hard skills, this research-based curriculum provides a practical roadmap for taking the first steps to succession planning and gives users the confidence and strategies they need for moving succession forward.
Through integrated and comprehensive worksheets, webinar recordings, and slide sets, each of the curriculum’s five modules explore an essential component of the succession process which includes communication strategies, identifying key players, understanding legal and business structures, creating goals, and developing a clear transfer plan.
Primary authors of both the workshop and the curriculum include Renee Wiatt, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development and the Purdue Institute for Family Business, Purdue University; Kurt Smith, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University; and Rebecca Smith, Associate Extension Professor, Mississippi State University Extension. Additional partners include Southern Regional Center for Rural Development (SRDC) and North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD).
“Not knowing where to start in succession planning often creates decision paralysis. In the Who Will Fill My Shoes? Curriculum we cover the legal, business, and planning aspects, as well as the emotional hurdles; providing families and businesses a guide to how to start the process and keep it going,” offered curriculum co-author, Renee Wiatt.
Download the curriculum for free. Housed on the Southern Rural Development Center’s website, the curriculum download page offers additional module information and contact information.