Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Idaho T&E solo who knows Title 15 and community property cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving Idaho 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 an Idaho 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.
Under Idaho Code § 56-218, recovery reaches beyond the probate estate to assets passing by survivorship, life estate, and living trust, after the death of the recipient and spouse.
Idaho's expanded recovery defeats the probate-avoidance shortcuts that work elsewhere. A funded revocable trust is not a recovery shield here — structuring has to address the expanded reach directly.
Idaho Code § 56-218 · legislature.idaho.gov
Idaho does not authorize TOD deeds; real property avoids probate only via trust, community property with right of survivorship (Idaho Code §§ 15-6-401/402), or joint tenancy.
The TOD-deed shortcut neighboring states use is off the table for the Idaho solo. CPWROS gives the surviving spouse automatic transfer and a double step-up in basis — the workhorse tool here.
Idaho Code §§ 15-6-401, 15-6-402 · legislature.idaho.gov
Idaho Code § 55-1003 caps the homestead exemption at $175,000; a 2025 amendment (ch. 235) lets each spouse claim it independently, effectively up to $350,000 for a married couple.
Bigger creditor protection, but recall this is the creditor-law homestead — it is separate from Medicaid's home-equity limit and does not block expanded estate recovery.
Idaho Code § 55-1003 (2025 amend.) · legislature.idaho.gov
Decisions from the courts that bind an Idaho practitioner — the Idaho Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, and the Ninth 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.
An 84-year-old woman, found during a welfare check too weak to stand and soon admitted to a skilled-nursing facility, was visited there by year-round neighbors who had her sign — and a facility notary witness — two easements across her lakefront property. Her nephew and longtime power of attorney sued to rescind the easements for lack of capacity and undue influence. The district court granted summary judgment for the POA, supported by a forensic neuropsychologist’s affidavit; the neighbors offered only conclusory assertions of capacity in their own pleadings and no admissible proof. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding a ‘mere scintilla of evidence’ cannot create a genuine issue of material fact, dismissing the neighbors’ unjust-enrichment counterclaim, and upholding a roughly $28,800 prevailing-party attorney-fee award under the easements’ own fee clauses — even though the instruments were rendered unenforceable.
Three things to carry into your files. One: to set aside a deed, easement, will, or trust an incapacitated elder signed, marshal admissible capacity evidence early — an independent forensic/neuropsychological evaluation carried this case, while the other side’s say-so was a mere scintilla. Two: a POA can move to rescind transactions the principal entered while incapacitated and under undue influence; the fact pattern here (isolated, frail elder; out-of-the-blue facility visit; documents signed and notarized on the spot in the visitor’s favor) is the red-flag template. Three: prevailing-party fee clauses can be enforced even when the underlying instrument is voided (Yates v. Hull Farms), and a frivolous defense risks fees under I.C. § 12-121 — respond timely to fee memoranda (I.R.C.P. 54) and to discovery, or you waive the objection.
Burke v. Baugh, Docket No. 52429 (Idaho Ct. App. Oct. 27, 2025) · official opinion — isc.idaho.gov
This week in Idaho for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Idaho State Bar, the magistrate (probate) courts, and the Department of Health and Welfare put in front of you.
The ISB CLE calendar, the Taxation, Probate and Trust Law Section, and the DHW policy updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.