Review
"Jaws had a sequel. So did Star Wars, The Godfather, etc. Now the conservation classic, Preserving Family Lands, which has sold over 80,000 copies, has a follow-up. Concrete examples in clear language take the reader from realistic estate planning problems to the dollars and sense of pragmatic conservation solutions. Land trusts and landowners need this book. We can't wait for the movie." --
Newsletter of The Conservation Fund, Common Ground, Vol. 8 No. 5"Mr Small is the nation's leading authority on estate tax planning for landowners. He has seen the full range of problems caused by a lack of estate planning, and the sometimes painful consequences on both the land and family finances.
By considering the fate of family lands in estate planning, landowners can both ensure safe passage of their property to children and conserve and important natural resource." -- Adirondack Nature Conservancy & Adirondack Land Trust
Preserving Family Lands: Book II will be useful to owners of land of any value who wish to preserve it after their deaths.
Small's writing is concise and well organized.
Another reiterated point is that we must be willing to pay for competent professional assistance in estate planning. "Even Book II is only a generalized approach to a difficult subject," Small emphasizes. "As much as landowners may wish to forget tax issues, they cannot afford to do so. For their lands' sake, they should explore all conservation options long before passing those lands along." -- Publication of Wild Earth
About the Author
Stephen J. Small is a tax attorney at his own firm, the Law Office of Stephen J. Small, Esq., P.C, in Boston. He is the author of The Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements (Land Trust Alliance, 1985); Preserving Family Lands: Book I (third edition, Landowner Planning Center, 1998); and Preserving Family Lands: Book II -- More Planning Strategies for the Future (Landowner Planning Center, 1997). Both Preserving Family Lands books have sold more than 90,000 copies.
Before going into private practice, Mr. Small was an attorney-advisor in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C., where he wrote the federal income tax regulations on conservation easements.
Mr. Small advises landowners on federal income and estate tax planning to help preserve valued family land, including planning for the next generation of ownership. He has worked with private landowners around the country to preserve a wide range of property, from small family parcels, timberland, and dairy farms to western ranches, Atlantic coast barrier islands, farmland, and wildlife habitat.
Mr. Small has given more than one hundred fifty speeches, seminars, and workshops around the country on tax planning for landowners, succession planning for family lands, and tax incentives for land conservation. He is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bars.
