Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Georgia T&E solo who knows Title 53 cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving DCH Medicaid pieces.
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 Georgia 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.
O.C.G.A. § 44-17-1 et seq. authorized TOD deeds for Georgia real property for the first time, effective July 1, 2024.
A new probate-avoidance tool for the Georgia solo. The trap: a TOD deed avoids probate but does not shield the home from estate recovery, and county handling of homestead renewals after a recorded TOD deed is still settling.
O.C.G.A. § 44-17-1 et seq. · law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-44
DCH recovers Medicaid long-term-care costs from the estate of a deceased recipient under O.C.G.A. § 49-4-147.1 and Rule 111-3-8, following the Revised Probate Code; claims pursued where the estate exceeds the threshold and no spouse survives.
Because recovery runs against the probate estate, the funded revocable trust (and now, carefully, the TOD deed) keeps the home out of reach. The unfunded trust is the malpractice trap.
O.C.G.A. § 49-4-147.1; Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 111-3-8 · rules.sos.ga.gov
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); the special income standard is $2,982/mo. Georgia applies the federal $752,000 home-equity floor.
Two places this lands: community-spouse protection math and the income cap for institutional eligibility. Flag the 2028 OBBBA $1,000,000 home-equity cap now.
42 U.S.C. § 1396p · CMS 2026 Standards (medicaid.gov)
Decisions from the courts that bind a Georgia practitioner — the Supreme Court of Georgia and the Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Georgia, and the Eleventh 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. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
After both parents died, one sibling sued the trustee-sister — who had deeded trust real property to herself and declined to recover equipment another sibling took — to set aside the trust for undue influence, remove her as trustee, and recover for breach of trust. The trial court granted summary judgment against the beneficiary for lack of standing and held the claims belonged in probate court. The Court of Appeals reversed on both points: trust-administration and trust-validity claims are equity matters that must be brought in superior court under OCGA § 53-12-6, not probate (outside the large-county concurrent-jurisdiction exceptions); and as a named beneficiary, the plaintiff has standing under OCGA §§ 53-12-300 and 53-12-301(a) to seek damages, an accounting, an injunction, and removal of the trustee — legal title to specific trust property is not required. It affirmed the earlier denial of the trustee’s own summary-judgment motion, where her self-dealing raised fact issues on bad faith.
Three things to carry into your files. One: trust-administration and trust-validity claims belong in superior court as equity matters (OCGA § 53-12-6) — outside the limited large-county concurrent-jurisdiction exceptions, don’t let an opponent shunt your beneficiary client into probate first. Two: named-beneficiary status alone confers standing for the full OCGA § 53-12-301(a) menu — damages, accounting, injunction, removal — without proving legal title to particular trust assets; a creditor, by contrast, would lack it. Three: a trustee who self-deals (deeding trust realty to herself, declining to pursue trust property in a way that fattens her own residuary share) generates fact issues on bad faith that defeat summary judgment — paper the conflict early.
Farmer v. Mitchell, Nos. A25A1313 & A25A1314 (Ga. Ct. App. Sept. 30, 2025) · official opinion — gaappeals.us
This week in Georgia for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the State Bar of Georgia, the county Probate Courts, and DCH bulletins put in front of you.
The State Bar CLE calendar, the Fiduciary Law Section, and the DCH policy updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.