Handing down hope
New Transition and Succession Planning courses set to strengthen Australian families
Ineffective transition and succession planning can lead to deep-seated rifts in family relationships and lengthy litigation, stymieing the aspirations of both retirees and next generation business entrants.
Currently, there's a critical gap in the sector that needs to be addressed with more qualified professionals.
As Australia's aging population slowly marches towards retirement, the need for more expertise in this space is set to grow significantly.
Our new courses in transition and succession planning have been specifically designed to address this need and help you ensure your career credentials are future fit.
Unit Coordinator for transition and succession planning, Dr Andrew Lawson offers his insight on the new units in our Q&A below.
Tell us a little about yourself
I grew up near Mungindi on the Queensland/NSW border, where my family were on the land. I have an unusual combination of qualifications – law and rural science – so the AgLaw Centre at UNE’s Law School is an ideal home for them.
After finishing my law degree in my early 20s, I completed my legal apprenticeship (‘article clerkship’) with a law firm in Brisbane called Cannan & Peterson. Like many law graduates, I didn’t pursue a long-term career as a legal practitioner and instead, changed direction towards environment and agriculture issues.
I worked for a grassroots landcare group at Holbrook in southern NSW, a Commonwealth Government R&D organisation called Land & Water Australia in Canberra, and in Hong Kong for a local NGO called Civic Exchange, looking at environmental issues in Hong Kong and southern China. I stayed on at UNE after I completed my PhD here from 2012-2016, and am now a Senior Lecturer at the Law School, and Deputy Director of the AgLaw Centre, where my research is based.
What is transition & succession planning and why should people enrol?
Transition and succession refers to the process of handing over a business – often a family business, such as a family farm – to the next generation. ‘Transition’ refers to the part of the process that occurs during the asset-holder’s lifetime and ‘succession’ refers to the process of inheritance after the asset-holder dies, for example through a will. The courses are aimed at people who want to gain or update qualifications in transition and succession planning.
At the moment, there is no dedicated university qualification for T&S planners, and people in the T&S sector with whom we work closely believe a qualification such as the one we’ve developed will help enhance the professional standing of the sector.
LLM465 is the introductory unit in our two new graduate courses in Transition & Succession (T&S) Planning – Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma in T&S Planning.
The unit gives an overview of what T&S planning is, career pathways for T&S planners, and the broad context of T&S planning in Australia. This includes ‘The Great Wealth Transfer’ underway as a result of the retirement and passing of the Baby Boomer generation.
Though there is a strong emphasis of the law applicable to T&S planning, and the unit and new courses are managed by the Law School, you don’t need to be a lawyer or law student to take the unit and the courses. The courses are aimed at people wanting solid qualifications in family transition and succession planning. Students may be starting out or be an experienced professional wanting to enhance their qualifications.
The courses would suit:
- Professional family counsellors and farm and business consultants, who facilitate conversations and action amongst family members on T&S matters.
- Lawyers, accountants, and financial advisors wanting to enhance their understanding and skills in T&S planning.
- Extension and advisory staff from agricultural organisations and other business sector groups, who regularly deal with family businesses.
What excites you about teaching transition and succession planning?
This unit is exciting because it’s brand new! Also exciting is the fact that it comes out of UNE research, and it comes out of advice from industry.
The research part was a collaboration between the AgLaw Centre and UNE’s Business School. Our initial research project looked at gender and farm succession – e.g. the experiences of daughters and daughters-in-law in family farm succession.
I was the only bloke in a wonderful research team that included Lucie Newsome and Alison Sheridan at the Business School, and Skye Charry, Sue Field, and Tanya Howard in the Law School.
That research got us in touch with others interested in T&S issues in rural Australia, including Mark Scanlon at the Next Transition Group – an experienced farm T&S planning firm in Newcastle. It was Mark who urged us to create the new courses because of a gap in suitable university courses.
What is one piece of career advice you might offer students?
Some people know, even as children, exactly what they want to be in their professional lives. That’s wonderful! But it wasn’t me. So, if you are not completely sure about career directions, don’t worry – I wasn’t either. Life experience and qualifications, you gain along the way are never wasted. Through a somewhat circuitous route, one thing builds on another, and I’ve reached a place where I love what I’m doing.
Apply now
Create a niche specialisation in helping clients to safeguard their assets and interests and plan for leadership and ownership transitions with UNE’s Graduate Diploma in Transition and Succession Planning.
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