Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Illinois T&E solo who knows the Probate Act of 1975 cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving HFS Medical Assistance 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 Illinois 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.
735 ILCS 5/12-901 raises the individual homestead exemption from $15,000 to $50,000 (and to $100,000 total for co-owned property).
A materially larger creditor-protection floor for the Illinois solo’s clients — but note it is the creditor-law homestead, separate from Medicaid’s home-equity limit and from estate-recovery exposure.
Illinois files a claim against the probate estate for medical assistance provided after age 55 (305 ILCS 5/5-13); Public Act 102-1037 (eff. June 2, 2022) restricts new TEFRA liens on real property.
Because recovery runs against the probate estate, a TOD instrument or funded living trust that keeps the home out of probate is the planning shield. The unfunded trust is the malpractice trap.
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); the special income standard is $2,982/mo. Illinois 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 an Illinois practitioner — the Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of Illinois, and the Seventh 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.
A father’s will disinherited his only son and left everything to a friend (who held his powers of attorney and was named executrix) and her daughter. The son contested on testamentary-capacity and undue-influence grounds and, alternatively, alleged financial exploitation of an elderly person under section 2-6.2 of the Probate Act and section 17-56(g) of the Criminal Code. After a bench trial the court found against the son on every count, and the Fifth District affirmed. On capacity, the father’s continued independent management of his own business and finances until a heart attack nearly four years after signing defeated the ‘insane delusion’ theory. On undue influence, although the POA created a fiduciary relationship as a matter of law and the beneficiary took a substantial benefit, the son failed to prove the testator was dependent (weakness or debilitation amounting to domination — not mere help with bills, errands, and medications) or that the beneficiary procured or prepared the will. The court also refused an adverse inference from the proponent’s failure to call the drafting attorney, because once the testator died and privilege was waived that attorney was equally available to the contestant.
Three things to carry into your files. One: the strongest capacity evidence is a contemporaneous record of the testator transacting ordinary business and managing his own affairs around execution — isolated ‘delusional’ beliefs that don’t bear on the will (and were later reconciled) won’t carry a contest. Two: the fiduciary-abuse branch of undue influence has four elements (fiduciary relationship, dependence/dominance, trust and confidence, and the beneficiary procuring the will); a POA satisfies the first as a matter of law, but proving dependence and procurement is where contests are won or lost — if you defend a fiduciary-beneficiary, document the testator’s independence and an independent drafter. Three: don’t count on an adverse inference from a missing drafting-attorney witness — after death and a privilege waiver that lawyer is equally available, so subpoena them yourself; and weigh the section 2-6.2 / section 17-56(g) financial-exploitation theories (treble damages, preponderance) as alternatives against a fiduciary who benefits.
In re Estate of Ticknor, 2026 IL App (5th) 250501 (Ill. App. Ct. June 12, 2026) · official opinion — illinoiscourts.gov
This week in Illinois for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Illinois State Bar Association, the Cook County (and collar-county) Probate Divisions, and HFS put in front of you.
The ISBA CLE calendar, the Trusts and Estates Section, and the HFS policy updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.