He sees helping drought-stricken farmers survive as a way of fulfilling his aim to continue living as a resident solicitor in Coolamon. Since 1990 Mr Thompson estimates he has addressed over 5000 farming people at seminars dealing with such matters as rural assistance, retirement planning, and the prediction of price and interest movements in rural industries. During Law Week he spoke at a Dubbo seminar on Farming for the future. Recently at a Wagga Wagga breakfast seminar Commins Hendriks sponsored for 65 bankers and accountants, he shared a platform with, among others, an economist, officers from the departments of Social Security and Assistance to Small Business, and a Rural Counsellor. Follow-up is vital, Mr Thompson has discovered.
Seminars get people going, but they have to be nudged along.
He usually urges farmers at seminars to sort out their wills in the next two weeks and then tries to monitor the outcome. Persuading farmers to plan ahead is his major concern. Farmers find it hard to sit down and talk. I ask them to road-test their wills, business structures and retirement plans. Mr Thompson's experience shows that clients who own a farm which can support only one family must consider pension entitlements if the farm is operated by the younger generation.