DES MOINES, IA, August 2026. Farm families preparing for succession rarely lack professional advice. They may already have an attorney, accountant, lender, financial advisor, or other specialist involved. The difficulty, according to Rena Striegel, President of Transition Point Business Advisors, is often figuring out how all of that expertise comes together around one transition.
After more than twenty years working with agricultural families and family-owned businesses, Striegel has seen families receive valuable guidance from several professionals yet still struggle to translate advice into action. Each advisor may be responsible for an important part of the plan, but the family may ultimately be responsible for coordinating the entire process.
“Farm families do not necessarily need more advisors,” Striegel said. “They need someone who can connect the advisors, the family and the business around one clear succession plan.”
When Good Advice Remains Disconnected
Farm succession touches many areas at once. Legal documents may determine how assets will be transferred. Accountants can help families understand tax implications. Lenders and financial advisors may be involved in financing, retirement planning, or the financial structure of a transition.
The challenge is that decisions made in one area can have consequences somewhere else.
An ownership structure may make sense technically but raise questions within the family about fairness or future leadership. A retirement timeline can affect financing and management responsibilities. Plans for the next generation may depend on whether the business can support multiple households financially.
Striegel believes families need a way to connect those conversations rather than address each issue separately.
Without someone keeping sight of the overall transition, families can leave meetings with more information but little clarity about what happens next.
A Different Role in the Advisory Team
Striegel sees the succession consultant as a potential bridge between the family, the business, and the specialists involved in the process.
The consultant does not replace the attorney, accountant, lender, or financial advisor. Instead, the role is to help establish the family’s goals, identify questions that remain unresolved, facilitate conversations, and keep the various parts of the succession moving in the same direction.
That can be particularly important when a technical decision exposes a family issue.
If siblings disagree about future ownership, for example, another financial projection may not solve the problem. If the next generation has not been prepared to lead, completing an ownership transfer does not automatically make the business ready for new leadership.
Those situations require someone who is comfortable working with both the people involved and the plan itself.
Preparing More Professionals to Fill the Gap
This advisor gap is also influencing the professional training Striegel is developing through Transition Point Business Advisors.
Her focus is on preparing more succession professionals to understand how the technical and human sides of transition affect one another. That includes knowing how to work collaboratively with other advisors while helping families navigate expectations, communication, leadership, accountability, and difficult decisions.
For Striegel, effective succession consulting is not about becoming the expert in every professional discipline. It is about understanding enough of the complete process to recognize what needs attention, involve the right specialists, and prevent the family’s larger goals from getting lost between separate areas of advice.
That approach also gives families a clearer point of leadership throughout what can otherwise become a lengthy and fragmented process.
Moving From Planning to Implementation
Striegel has found that creating a succession plan and implementing one are very different things.
A family can spend considerable time developing strategies without reaching the decisions required to put them into practice. Unresolved expectations, uncertainty about leadership, or poor coordination among advisors can leave even well-developed plans sitting unfinished.
When the advisory team is communicating and someone is responsible for maintaining momentum, Striegel believes families are better positioned to make decisions and follow through.
Through Transition Point Business Advisors, her work continues to focus on strengthening that connection between professional expertise and the family conversations that ultimately shape the transition.
For farm families, the objective is not to assemble the largest possible advisory team. It is to make sure the people around the table are working toward the same future.
More information about Transition Point Business Advisors is available through the firm’s website. Rena Striegel also shares perspectives on farm succession, family business, and leadership through Instagram and YouTube.
About Rena Striegel
Rena Striegel is the President of Transition Point Business Advisors and one of the leading authorities in agricultural and family business succession planning in the United States. Born on August 21, 1970, in What Cheer, Iowa, and raised on a dairy and hog farm, Rena developed an early understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities of operating a multi-generational agricultural business. Her upbringing gave her firsthand insight into the realities of family farming and the importance of preserving both the business and the relationships behind it.
Rena holds an MBA from the University of Iowa and is a certified business coach. For more than twenty years, she has worked with farmers, agricultural leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, and family-owned businesses, helping them navigate strategic planning, succession, continuity planning, and leadership development. Her work focuses heavily on the human side of transition, including communication, family alignment, leadership readiness, and the practical decisions required to move a business forward.
Rena is the creator of The DIRTT Project®, a framework developed to help agricultural families improve communication, clarify expectations, and build leadership capacity as they prepare for ownership transition. She is also the host of the Ag Inspo podcast and a contributor to agricultural publications, sharing practical perspectives drawn from her work with family businesses.
Through her consulting, training, speaking, and educational work, Rena continues to help families and the professionals who advise them approach succession with greater clarity and confidence.
About Transition Point Business Advisors
Transition Point Business Advisors works with agricultural and family-owned businesses on succession, strategic planning, continuity planning, and leadership development. The firm helps families address both the business requirements of transition and the communication, leadership, and relationship dynamics that influence whether plans move forward successfully.
