Last October, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension entered into a memorandum of understanding for Extension Legal Specialist and Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI) member Kelly Nuckolls Winslow to spend part of her time developing legal resources and providing in person presentations for Delaware farmers.
One way Winslow prepared for this new assignment was by joining a University of Delaware Agriculture Extension team meeting late last year to solicit ideas on topics relevant to Delaware farmers.
This January, Winslow gave three presentations at Delaware Agriculture Week in Harrington, DE during January 8-11. Winslow discussed current legal issues for poultry growers in the Delmarva during the event’s poultry session. Winslow also presented on estate planning, discussing strategies to pay for long term care that minimize the state’s ability to recover one’s assets after their death. As it stands, after the passing of a Medicaid recipient, the state can attempt to recover funds spent on that recipient’s long term care from their estate. She ended her week of presentations with a workshop on legal issues with seed savings.
According to Winslow, the ALEI-University of Delaware partnership allows her to compare how the laws differ in both states and generate ideas on topics she can explore for both Maryland and Delaware farmers. “I’ve seen that there is a need for estate planning resources for farmers in both states. By participating in Delaware Ag week, I saw a need for more information on how health care programs impact the estate planning process.”
“This program helps to fill a critical need for Delaware farmers while providing an opportunity for ALEI to grow”, according to Paul Goeringer, a senior member of ALEI, extension legal specialist and faculty member at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Last month, Winslow wrote an extension publication entitled an Estate Planning for Farmers in Delaware. Moving forward, she plans to develop resources on equine law, estate planning, and lease agreements.
ALEI is a collaboration of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (“UMB”); the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, College Park (“UMCP”); and the School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (“UMES”).
ALEI is an initiative of the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, a collaboration between the state of Maryland’s two most powerful public research institutions: UMB and UMCP. It leverages the sizable strengths and complementary missions of both institutions to strengthen Maryland’s innovation economy, advance interdisciplinary research, create opportunities for students, and solve important problems for the people of Maryland and the nation.
