Your state's pack. New issue every Monday. Bookmark it. Built for the New York T&E solo who knows the EPTL cold but still loses an afternoon tracking the moving Medicaid pieces — the community-care look-back that keeps getting delayed, the pooled-income trust, the spend-down math. What's below is what mattered in New York this week.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments I think actually matter to a New York T&E solo. Each comes with a reachable citation so you can verify it yourself before you use it with a client.
New York's statutorily-authorized 30-month transfer look-back for community-based long-term care (home care, personal care, CDPAP, assisted living) has been delayed repeatedly since 2020 and, per the most recent guidance, is still not being applied in practice as of 2026. Community Medicaid applications currently face no functioning transfer look-back.
For a New York solo this is the single most important planning window in the practice — and it is still open. Transfers for community-care planning currently escape a look-back that institutional Medicaid (60 months) already applies. Plan as if it could switch on with little notice: move now, document contemporaneously, and tell clients the window is a gift that may close.
N.Y. State DOH MRT 30-month look-back · health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/redesign/mrt2/proposals/30-month_lookback-final.htm · status update: nytrustlaw.com (Jan 2026)
Unlike income-cap states, New York uses a medically-needy spend-down: an applicant over the income limit can still qualify by spending down, and for community Medicaid the standard tool to shelter surplus monthly income is a pooled-income trust administered by a non-profit, authorized under federal and state law.
For a New York solo the machinery is genuinely different from the Sun Belt income-cap states — do not reach for a Miller trust here. The pooled-income trust is the income tool, and getting a client enrolled and funded is the recurring community-Medicaid task. Build the enrollment steps into the intake.
N.Y. Soc. Serv. Law § 366 · 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(C) · medicaidplanningassistance.org/medicaid-eligibility-new-york
New York recovers Medicaid costs only against the probate estate, so assets that pass outside probate (a funded trust, beneficiary designations) generally fall outside recovery. On the home, New York is one of the states that elected the higher 2026 home-equity limit of $1,130,000 rather than the $752,000 federal floor.
Two reads for a New York solo: non-probate transfer is recovery-avoidance, so a funded trust does double duty; and for high-value downstate homes, New York's $1.13M equity election keeps far more homes inside the exemption than the federal floor would. Flag both in any plan that leans on the residence.
42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b) · 2026 home-equity election: CMS 2026 SSI & Spousal Impoverishment Standards (medicaid.gov)
This week in New York for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the New York State Bar Association, the local and county bars, and the NY DOH / local-district Medicaid bulletins actually put in front of you — CLEs worth the seat, Elder Law and Special Needs Section notices, ethics opinions, and Medicaid notices that moved the eligibility or look-back math.
The NYSBA CLE calendar, the Elder Law and Special Needs Section, the county bar notices, and the DOH / local-district bulletins all publish on different schedules and almost none of it is indexed by practice-focus. A New York T&E solo doing community and institutional Medicaid spends half an hour a week sifting for the three items that touch the vehicles they draft — pooled-income trusts, MAPTs, look-back posture, community-spouse protection. This is that sift, already done. Half an hour a week adds up to a working day every quarter. You get it back.