NCSU EXTENSION FORESTRY PUBLICATIONS

This type of ownership has historical roots in the Jim Crow era in the South and is common among rural mountain communities throughout Appalachia where few legal resources were used or available.

Heirs’ property continues to be a particularly vexing problem in North Carolina and throughout the South, occurring in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Figure 1 shows that heirs’ property exists in all North Carolina counties and in most counties across neighboring states.

Many of these properties are concentrated near the coast, but they are common throughout the state.

New heirs’ property continues to be created, with a concerning number of landowners having no succession plans and leaving property without a will for their heirs.

The result has been significant land loss throughout North Carolina, particularly in Black communities. This loss has created an erosion of intergenerational wealth transfer, which has had negative consequences for succeeding generations. In addition to creating challenging family dynamics and a loss of family wealth, North Carolina loses prime agricultural and forestry land due to development and parcel fragmentation.

This will have a long-term impact on our strong agriculturally based economy, which contributes over $111 billion to the state's coffers (North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services 2024).

North Carolina has also become a prime location for people wanting to relocate to a state with a rural community character and available land. This has led to North Carolina being projected to be second in the nation for agricultural and forest land loss via development by the year 2050 (Hunter et al. 2022).

Family property remains an important resource that deserves thoughtful consideration and one that is worth preserving in North Carolina.

Our hope is that this publication will begin to move the needle for landowners to engage families in meaningful succession and estate planning and to take the necessary legal steps to ensure the wise transfer of assets to succeeding generations.

NCSU Extension Forestry has published a new publication that is designed to engage families in meaningful estate and succession planning.

The publication is available in a web format as well as in PDF format.

Both can be accessed here: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/heirs-property-in-north...