Unpublished policy from the Fresno County Probate Court Investigator’s Office

We recently filed a petition for guardianship of a minor. The grandmother requested guardianship of the person of her grandson. The minor’s father had died, and the 8-year-old minor was living with his mother in Fresno. Our client had substantial contact with the minor before his father died, but was cut off from all contact by the child’s mother. (The parents had filed for divorce, however, the father died before a divorce judgment was granted.)

As required by law, the court investigator spoke with the parties. The investigator then informed the court in a written report, “When a child is not in the care of the petitioner, it is not our policy to recommend a guardianship.”

To my knowledge, this local policy is unpublished and is not part of the Local Rules of court, but it is cited as authority by the investigator’s office.

169 days to get a hearing for probate distribution in Fresno Superior Court

Part of a continuing update regarding the time needed to obtain a hearing in the Fresno Probate Court.

We just filed a petition for distribution from a decedent’s estate, all cash, three heirs. Filed on January 21, 2025, set for hearing July 9, 2025 (169 days).

What was it like in the past? We filed a petition for distribution on October 3, 2019 and received a hearing date of November 18, 2019 (46 days).

Right before COVID? We filed a petition for distribution on February 21, 2020 and received a hearing date of April 30, 2020 (52 days).

Right after COVID? We filed a petition for distribution on November 12, 2020 and received a hearing date of February 1, 2021 (81 days).

During 2021? We filed a petition for distribution on August 3, 2021 and received a hearing date of November 17, 2021 (106 days).

During 2022? We filed a petition for distribution on February 28, 2022 and received a hearing date of June 8, 2022 (100 days).

During 2023? We filed a petition for distribution on February 7, 2023 and received a hearing date of July 3, 2023 (146 days).

During 2024? We filed a petition for distribution on March 1, 2024 and received a hearing date of May 23, 2024 (83 days). Nice improvement, but not long lasting.

Later that year we filed a petition for distribution on December 10, 2024 and received a hearing date of May 13, 2025 (154 days).

Now we are up to 169 days to obtain a hearing for distribution from a probate estate. Very frustrating for our clients.

U.S. Imports Millions of Tons of Used Cooking Oil to Make Biodiesel Fuels

California is the largest consumer of alternative diesel fuels in the United States. A recent study published by the University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics discusses U.S. imports of used cooking oil. The authors explain as follows:

“Clean fuel programs like California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard have driven a boom in the consumption of biodiesel and renewable diesel, called BBDs. These policies have resulted in BBDs attaining a 70% market share in the California diesel market.

“Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils, beef tallow, and used cooking oil (UCO). The emissions of used cooking oil are around 50% less than soybean oil, the primary crop-based feedstock for biodiesel in California.

“The U.S. production of byproduct feedstocks cannot easily increase to meet rising biofuel demand. As a result, renewable fuel producers are importing millions of metric tons of used cooking oil from Asian countries to meet this demand.

“Imports of used cooking oil account for approximately 40% of U.S. consumption. U.S. imports of used cooking oil have surged dramatically in recent years, rising from negligible levels to over 1.4 million metric tons in 2023.

“These imports are valued at over $1.6 billion. China is the dominant supplier, accounting for over half of U.S. imports. China’s used cooking oil exports have grown at an unrelenting pace, averaging more than 30% annualized growth over the past five years.

“Demand from clean fuel programs has been so strong that the price of used cooking oil has frequently exceeded the price of virgin crop oils in UCO-exporting countries. (Virgin vegetable oils like soybean oil are associated with comparatively higher emissions than byproduct feedstocks.) Industry leaders and policy makers are concerned that used cooking oil collectors could be mixing in cheaper palm oil to boost their sales.

“Chinese policymakers suddenly ended the export tax credits for used cooking oil in mid-November 2024 to boost their domestic biofuel production and possibly limit government expenditures. Thus, policies that support Asian UCO could face an uncertain future.”

Swanson, Andrew, Shawn Arita and Joseph Cooper. “Controversies Surrounding U.S. Imports of Used Cooking Oil for Biofuel Production”
Agricultural and Resource Economics Update (Nov/Dec 2024) Vol. 28, No. 2. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
https://giannini.ucop.edu/filer/file/1734628708/21199/

Fresno Probate Court – The New Normal

We recently filed a Petition to Determine Succession to Real Property in Madera County and one in Fresno County.

The Madera case was submitted for filing on October 2, 2024. The assigned hearing date for the Madera case is November 18, 2024.

It takes 47 days to get a probate hearing in Madera.

On the exact same type of matter in Fresno, we submitted the petition for filing on September 30, 2024. The assigned hearing date for the Fresno case is February 20, 2025.

It takes 141 days to get a probate hearing in Fresno. A delay of more than three months over the Madera court.

This is the new normal for Fresno.

It takes four months to get a real estate sale approved in Fresno Probate Court

On August 14, 2024, my office filed a petition to approve the sale of a house in a probate estate. The sale cannot proceed until we get court approval.

Which will be a long time coming, because the assigned hearing date is December 11, 2024. That’s a four-month delay. Most buyers won’t wait that long, so its a major problem for Fresno probate cases.

We are now one of the slowest probate courts in the Valley. It used to be Kern County, but the Fresno probate department has taken the thorny crown.

Fresno probate court experiences further delays

The Fresno probate court was formerly very prompt. You could submit a petition and receive a hearing date within six to eight weeks. Everything moved right along.

Not now. On February 7, 2023, we filed a petition to distribute an estate to two heirs. The heirs waived the accounting, and the estate is all cash, half to each brother. The probate court set the hearing for July 3, 2023. That’s a five-month delay in the Fresno probate court to get a hearing on a simple petition for distribution.

Meanwhile, we filed a similar petition, on the same day, in the Madera probate court. We received a hearing date of March 16, 2023, which is five weeks out. The Madera probate court is a model of efficiency, and we appreciate it greatly.

Choppy Waters for California Almond Producers

The University of California at Davis publishes an excellent agriculture newsletter. In the Sept/Oct 2022 issue, Prof. Colin A. Carter and Sandro Steinbach offer the following insights into the California almond industry (big business here in the Central Valley):

“California almond tree acreage has expanded by roughly three-fold since 2000. As a result, the industry relies more on foreign buyers to purchase the growing supply of almonds.

“Combined with the acreage growth, recent international trade disputes and supply chain problems have resulted in an oversupply of California almonds, with end-of-year inventories close to an unusually high 30% of the harvest …

“Table 1 summarizes California’s almond supply and demand from the 2016/17 marketing year – from August through July – to the 2021/22 marketing year.

California almonds 2016-2022

“Almonds are the most valuable crop produced in California, and over 70% of the harvest is exported internationally. The annual value of almond exports is over $4.5 billion, far higher than any other agricultural product shipped out of California.

“Grower prices for almonds are down over 25% since 2019 and are now below production costs for those farmers who are paying high prices for irrigation water. Warehouses are full, and temporary storage is being relied upon at higher storage costs …

“The supply and demand situation has eased somewhat because of the drought, and low crop prices curtailed water use and lowered the 2022 harvest volume by about 6% from the previous year. However, almond inventories continued to build up.”

A sobering analysis, indeed.

Citation: Carter, Colin A. and Sandro Steinbach. 2022. “California Almond Industry Harmed by International Trade Issues.” ARE Update 26(1): 1–4. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.

Authors’ Bios
Colin A. Carter is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis.

Sandro Steinbach is an associate professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics and the Director of the Center for Agricultural Policy and Trade Studies at North Dakota State University.

5-1/2 Month Delay to Get Standard Hearing Date in Fresno Probate Court

We filed a petition to distribute an estate in the Fresno Probate court on September 26, 2022. It’s a simple case. There is only one asset, being a parcel of land. There is only one heir. There is no accounting, because the sole heir waived the accounting.

Traffic jam

The probate clerk set the matter for hearing on March 13, 2023. That’s a 5-1/2 month wait to close the estate. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, but from the outside, things are moving very, very slowly in the probate division.

The Death Tax Bogeyman – More Imaginary than Real

The federal estate and gift tax has been law since World War I. In its simplest terms, it provides for the taxation of gifts made at death.

A certain group of influential persons don’t like this tax, and have continually attacked it, using the pejorative label “death tax.”

Like all taxes, the estate and gift tax has an exemption. Which is to say, if the gift is less than a certain amount, then no tax applies. As of 2021, the exemption amount is $11,700,000 per donor, net of encumbrances.

As a result, very, very few persons are subject to the estate and gift tax. According to a recent publication, “In 2018, only approximately 4,000 decedents died with a taxable estate and, of those taxable estates, approximately 1,900 owed any estate tax.”

Which fact is conveniently omitted by the persons who attack the estate and gift tax – it only applies to extremely wealthy individuals. CDC statistics state “A total of 2,839,205 resident deaths were registered in the United States in 2018.”

Which means that only 1,900 of those persons left an estate that incurred the estate and gift tax – that’s 0.0669% of all 2018 deaths.

Very, very few persons are subject to the estate and gift tax.