Guides · Case Studies · Articles
Plain-spoken, deeply researched reading for Central Valley farming families working through the decisions that matter most: farmland transitions, estate planning, tax strategy, and what comes next.
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We write a lot. But sometimes the clearest way to understand how we work, and why it matters for Central Valley farm families, is to hear it out loud. Watch this short video for a plain-spoken look at who Avidity Capital is and what fiduciary farmland guidance actually looks like in practice.
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Selling on installments makes you the bank, and the balloon payment at the end is only as good as the buyer. The protections that matter are negotiated before escrow closes, not after a payment is missed.
Seven stages, two unforgiving clocks, and one rule about the money. Tap any stage to see the tasks underneath it, the rules that bind it, and where your equity sits while it happens.
The five role decisions every estate plan needs, settled at your kitchen table with plain guidance on each, then printed clean for the attorney meeting. Nothing you type leaves the page.
Run your own numbers: federal capital gains, recapture, California tax, and the escrow withholding, then see the same land exchanged or held until it passes. The spread is the point.
Nine questions, two minutes, nothing leaves your browser. Most families have some of the pieces; very few have all nine. Find your gaps and what each one means.
Why we believe titling assets to a living trust is one of the most important financial decisions a family makes: the probate math, the five documents, the 18th birthday problem, and a calculator.
Central Valley farm families in Kings, Tulare, and Fresno counties, from an office in Hanford, paid only by the families themselves. With the Form ADV items that back the word fee-only, and who we are not the right fit for.
Comprehensive planning for families whose wealth is a business, rental property, or inherited accounts: the fit, the four California rules that catch them, what it costs, and what we are not.
Most families sign a trust they have never fully read. The Second Look is how we read every document in the plan and restate it in a printed, plain-English Estate Plan Review the family can share with children and trustees. With a 14-page sample.
No law sets a schedule. The events that do, with the statutes attached: divorce, a spouse's death and the 60-day notice, land sales and titling, Prop 19, and who should review which part of the plan.
The statutory fee schedule runs on the gross value of what you own, not what you owe, and the attorney and executor can each collect it. The full table, the timeline, and a calculator.
Farmland can still pass parent to child without full reassessment, parcel by parcel, with no residency requirement. But land inside an LLC does not qualify, and the claim form has a deadline.
Whether decades of gain are ever taxed often comes down to whether the land passed at death or before it. The reset, the community property double step-up, the gift trap, and what never steps up.
Naming a child as successor trustee takes thirty seconds and assigns hundreds of hours of work to someone who is grieving. Why we think most families above $3 million should at least price the alternative.
Equal thirds is how a farm gets sold: any co-owner can force a partition. Why fair is not equal, and six structures families use instead, from a continuing trust with a written lease to a buy-sell at a fixed valuation method.
The IRS ruling that makes Delaware statutory trusts work as 1031 replacement property, the seven things the trustee may never do, who may invest, where the fees hide, and the California clawback that follows the money out of state.
The five rules, the California-specific traps: FTB Form 3840 clawback, 3.33% withholding, Williamson Act transfers, SGMA water rights, and the 12–24 month planning window that makes the difference.
Prop 19's quiet end of the family-farm exclusion, SGMA groundwater pressure, the shrinking federal estate exemption, and what your menu actually looks like with ten years of runway versus six months.
Guide
A clear-eyed look at what holding the land actually requires: legally, financially, and generationally. The conditions that favor it, the ones that don't, and the 20-year math compared to selling.
Once the decision to sell is made, what comes next? A framework for evaluating DSTs, NNN leases, installment sales, Qualified Opportunity Zones, charitable trusts, and managed portfolios, with no product-pushing.
How we coordinate CPAs, attorneys, qualified intermediaries, agricultural brokers, and real estate partners around a single unified plan, so you're not project-managing your own professional team.
California has a long memory. When you exchange Central Valley ground for out-of-state replacement property, the state tracks the deferred tax indefinitely, and the annual filing obligation can follow your heirs for decades if it's not managed correctly.
Escrow holds back 3⅓% of the sale price and sends it to the state before the seller sees a dollar. Most families read that as a tax. It isn’t, and the Form 593 elections that come with it can keep six figures in the family’s hands at close.
A Williamson Act contract runs with the land, so a 1031 exchange of farmland usually carries it right along. The trouble starts when the new use doesn’t fit. What Central Valley families should understand before structuring an exchange.
A Letter Series for Families
Short, plainspoken letters we wrote for our own families. Eleven questions on taxes, timing, family, and the land itself, written in plain language. We send the series once. No follow-ups unless you ask.
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Before You Sell
The first conversation is confidential, with no charge and no obligation. You'll talk with a fiduciary adviser who works with Central Valley families at a decision point with land, a business or an estate, most of them farm families. We'll tell you honestly whether working together would add value, and what your actual options are.
Educational Purpose: All content on this page and linked resources is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. The information is not a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security. Consult your CPA, estate attorney, and financial adviser before making any decisions.
A polished PDF of the $28 million farmland sale case study: the full tax math, the blended strategy, and the outcome. Sent to your inbox immediately.