Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Colorado T&E solo working Medicaid-planning and estate files in a UPC state with a beefed-up homestead exemption, beneficiary deeds, and a probate-only recovery program that runs on creditor-claim timelines. Every item carries a reachable citation.
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 Colorado T&E solo. Each has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each comes with a reachable citation so you can verify it yourself before you use it with a client.
Health First Colorado's estate recovery (run by HCPF) reaches the probate estate — assets titled solely in the decedent's name or as tenants in common — and is pursued as a creditor claim subject to Colorado's probate creditor deadlines. Joint-tenancy-with-survivorship and beneficiary-deed property generally bypass probate and recovery.
For a Colorado solo this makes probate-avoidance the recovery-avoidance strategy: a § 15-15-401 beneficiary deed or survivorship titling keeps the home out of the recoverable estate. Mind the creditor-claim clock when administering.
HCPF, Health First Colorado Recoveries · hcpf.colorado.gov
C.R.S. § 38-41-201 (as amended by SB 22-086) protects $250,000 of homestead equity, rising to $350,000 where the owner, spouse, or dependent is elderly (60+) or disabled. The UPC homestead provision (§ 15-11-402) cross-references the § 38-41-201 exemption.
The elevated homestead reshapes creditor-protection and bankruptcy planning for elder clients and interacts with how much equity is at stake in recovery and lien analysis. Cite the elderly/disabled $350,000 tier when it applies.
C.R.S. § 38-41-201 (SB 22-086) · colorado.public.law
For Medicaid LTC eligibility Colorado elected the higher home-equity limit: $1,130,000 for 2026 (vs. the $752,000 federal floor most states use). Institutional income standard is $2,982/mo, resource limit $2,000, CSRA $32,532–$162,660.
Higher-value-home clients in Colorado keep more home equity exempt for eligibility than they would in a floor state — but OBBBA's flat $1M cap in 2028 will pull that down. Plan around the coming change for clients with appreciated homes.
Health First Colorado / HCPF; CMS 2026 figures · medicaid.gov
Decisions from the courts that bind a Colorado practitioner — the Colorado Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for Colorado, and the Tenth Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery.
The lane reads each new opinion from this state’s appellate courts and the federal courts that cover it, and reads-and-discards matters that are not trusts-and-estates (criminal, family-law, and commercial disputes — including cases where a trust appears only as a party’s capacity, not as a T&E holding). For this period, no material trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery ruling surfaced.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; plan and draft against the controlling statutes and prior authority unchanged.
This week in Colorado for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Colorado Bar, county bars, and HCPF / Health First Colorado bulletins put in front of you — from the elevated homestead tiers to the higher home-equity limit and the looming OBBBA cap.
Why the weekly sift is worth it for a Colorado solo: the elevated homestead, the higher home-equity election, and creditor-claim-based probate recovery make Colorado's planning math state-specific and time-sensitive.