Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Iowa T&E solo who knows the Probate Code cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving Iowa 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 Iowa 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.
Iowa does not authorize transfer-on-death deeds for real property; Iowa courts have treated them as void. The live 2026 vehicle is HF 2422 (introduced 2/12/2026, House Judiciary) — earlier 2025 bills (HF 125, HF 816) died. Until enactment, use a funded revocable trust.
The probate-avoidance reflex that works in TOD-deed states fails in Iowa. For the home, the funded revocable trust — not a beneficiary deed — is the tool. Watch the 2026 session.
Iowa HF 2422 (2026) · legis.iowa.gov; Iowa Legal Aid
Iowa Code § 249A.53(2) defines the recoverable estate to include joint property, life estates, and assets held in trust — not just probate property.
Because recovery runs against the expanded estate, jointly-titled real estate and retained life estates are not reliably protective in Iowa. Plan around the expanded definition.
Iowa Code § 249A.53(2) · legis.iowa.gov; Iowa HHS Estate Recovery
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); the special income standard is $2,982/mo. Iowa 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 Iowa practitioner — the Iowa Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa, and the Eighth 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.
Bessie Langer died at 105 with no children. Her will, executed two years before death, split the residue among eight people and excluded a niece, Debra Buck, who had been a beneficiary under an earlier will. Buck sued to set the will aside for undue influence by Rhonda Mock — a niece who took under the will — and for intentional interference with inheritance. The district court granted Mock summary judgment, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. On susceptibility, the first element of undue influence, the court held that the natural circumstances of aging (mobility problems, reliance on others for errands and transportation, and a single post-execution episode of delirium that resolved within a week) do not show a testator was “infirm or mentally weak”; multiple witnesses described Langer as remaining sharp, and she lived independently for two years after signing. Speculation that the later delirium reflected a pre-existing condition was not evidence. The court also rejected the confidential-relationship theory: a family tie, regular visits, and help with errands do not establish that the testator entrusted her important affairs to the influencer, so no suspicion of undue influence arose. Because undue influence was the only independent legal wrong pleaded, the intentional-interference-with-inheritance claim failed with it.
Three things to carry into your files. One: in a will contest, advanced age plus declining health is not susceptibility — the contestant needs concrete evidence of mental weakness at the time of execution, and an isolated, later episode of confusion that resolved will not generate a fact question. Two: a confidential relationship that raises a suspicion of undue influence requires proof the testator actually entrusted her important affairs to the alleged influencer; ordinary family caretaking — driving to appointments, picking up groceries, regular visits — does not. Three: an intentional-interference-with-inheritance claim resting entirely on undue influence rises or falls with it, so a contestant cannot use the tort to escape a failure of proof on the underlying claim. For the planner, the lesson runs the other way too: contemporaneous capacity documentation and an arm’s-length signing keep a later contest from surviving summary judgment.
In re Estate of Bessie F. Langer (Buck v. Mock), No. 25-1420 (Iowa Ct. App. June 10, 2026) · official opinion — iowacourts.gov
This week in Iowa for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Iowa State Bar Association, the district probate courts, and Iowa HHS put in front of you.
The ISBA CLE calendar, the Probate, Trust & Estate Planning Section, and the Iowa HHS estate-recovery updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.