14 CapitalPress.com
December 8, 2017
Financial planner helps producer diversify investments
By DIANNA TROYER
For the Capital Press
While raising sheep in
southeastern Idaho, Henry
Etcheverry has sometimes lit-
erally followed in his father’s
footsteps.
He can still find an aspen
tree where his
Basque father,
Jean Pierre,
carved
his
name after he
started Etch-
everry Sheep
Company in
1948. It’s in
Henry
the
rugged Etcheverry
Toponce area
north of Lava Hot Springs.
“Like my dad, I’m do-
ing what I love every day:
working outdoors, being
my own man, and facing the
challenge of making a good
product,” said Etcheverry,
68, who raises Columbia
Rambouillet sheep. “What
I learned from him was as
valuable as my college edu-
cation.”
Every year, he sells
about 10,000 lambs through
Mountain States Lamb Co-
operative and 80,000 pounds
of wool to Pendleton Wool-
en Mills.
“As the years pass, you
accumulate some assets,” he
says.
To run the company,
Etcheverry lives in Rupert in
winter and spring and Lava
Hot Springs in summer and
fall to be near his bands of
sheep and about a dozen
herders.
Realizing the need to
diversify his investments
Courtesy of Bill Schaefer
To be near his bands of sheep and herders, Henry Etcheverry lives in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, during summer and fall and in Rupert during winter and spring.
beyond livestock and real
estate, Etcheverry sought a
financial planner who would
develop an individualized
investment portfolio for him.
“You have to find the
right person who under-
stands your goals,” said
Etcheverry. “For me, it’s
prudent to be conservative
with investments.”
He chose David Sanna,
who at the time was working
for A.G. Edwards in Pocatel-
lo.
Since then, Sanna has
moved and works in Eagle,
Idaho, for RBC Wealth Man-
agement, a wholly owned
U.S. subsidiary of Royal
Bank of Canada.
A
Certified
Private
Wealth Advisor, Sanna is the
first person in Idaho to attain
the designation, which is
administered by the Invest-
ment and Wealth Institute.
As an advisor, Sanna de-
velops strategies for clients
like Etcheverry to minimize
taxes, protect assets, and
maximize growth.
“When you first meet
Henry, you would think he
focuses exclusively on his
business,” said Sanna. “But,
not so. He approaches his fi-
nances with diversification
in mind and understands the
importance of spreading his
risk away from the sheep
industry.
“Land isn’t always liquid,
and he understands that as
well,” said Sanna. “But he
sure loves those lambs more
than money, and he shepherds
them lovingly. I don’t see him
leaving that scene soon.”
Like his grazing sheep,
Etcheverry is in constant mo-
tion, delivering supplies to
herders or attending industry
meetings.
“Your energy level is
right between your ears.
My parents lived into their
90s, so I still have a few
years left to enjoy this
work.”
Estate plan keeps assets
in family for generations
By DIANNA TROYER
For the Capital Press
AGFI17-3/101
Dianna Troyer/For the Capital Press
Bert and his grandson, Luke, work in the farm shop.
“We have to know what
the tax implications of that
are and how it affects distri-
bution of our estate.”
Stevenson says a person’s
46-1/102
Dianna Troyer/For the Capital Press
John “Bert” Stevenson, center, with sons Dean, left, and Scott, says it’s a blessing to work with his
family on their farm near Rupert, Idaho.
RUPERT, Idaho — Fami-
ly circumstances and federal
laws affecting estate plan-
ning seem to fluctuate like the
weather.
“It’s hard to keep up with
it all, so you need a lawyer
to help develop a strategy for
keeping assets in a family for
future generations,” says John
“Bert” Stevenson, 81, a sec-
ond-generation farmer near
Rupert in southeastern Idaho.
“We have farmland in our
family from the 1940s and
want it to stay in the family,”
says Stevenson. “We don’t
want to have to sell it to pay
estate taxes one day.”
Stevenson says the fam-
ily’s irrigated farmland has
appreciated significantly in
value over the years.
estate planning often changes
with age.
“When you’re in your 50s,
you think about your wife and
kids. Then your kids mar-
ry, and the grandkids come
along. That plays into how
you make distributions. A
lot of times, you know what
you want to have happen, but
certain laws have restrictions
you might not be aware of un-
til you get legal advice.”
To get advice, Stevenson
turned to an attorney who
specializes in estate planning,
Don Chisholm in Burley.
Chisholm, 75, has been
writing estate plans for 50
years. He urges people to
have a plan to avoid family
conflict.
“Without a plan, some-
times factions within a family
disagree about how to treat
everyone fairly,” he says.
“Don’t assume heirs will fig-
ure it out.”
Many of his clients are
farmers and ranchers who
have accumulated significant
assets from decades of toil.
With proper planning, they
can avoid federal estate taxes
and pass those assets on to
family members or disburse
them within the family or do-
nate to a charity.
Chisholm has advice when
it appears likely that the com-
bined estate of the husband
and wife exceeds the effective
Turn to ESTATE,
Page 15