Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Kansas T&E solo who knows the Probate Code cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving KanCare 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 Kansas 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.
For assistance after June 30, 2004, K.S.A. 39-709 reaches any interest owned at death, including joint tenancy, TOD deeds, POD contracts, life estates, trusts, and annuities (K.A.R. 129-6-150).
Kansas’s own TOD-deed statute (K.S.A. 59-3501 et seq.) avoids probate but not estate recovery. The recovery shield and the probate-avoidance tool are two different problems here.
K.S.A. 39-709; K.A.R. 129-6-150 · law.cornell.edu; ksrevisor.gov
Kansas re-procured its Medicaid managed-care contracts: Sunflower Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare, and new entrant Healthy Blue serve KanCare for 2025–2027.
For the solo handling LTC clients, the operative MCO and its care-coordination contacts changed. Confirm the client’s current plan before relying on prior-plan contacts.
KDHE KanCare MCO contracts (Jan. 1, 2025) · kdhe.ks.gov / kancare.ks.gov
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); the special income standard is $2,982/mo. Kansas 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 Kansas practitioner — the Kansas Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, 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. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
Adalee Moffitt deeded a 40-acre Jefferson County farm into a joint tenancy with right of survivorship among herself, her son Carrol Clark, and her significant other Norman McKee. After Moffitt died, Clark and McKee remained joint tenants. Shortly before his own death, McKee — without Clark’s knowledge or consent — signed an installment contract for deed to sell the entire parcel to third parties, vacated the residence, and turned over the keys and garage-door openers. After McKee died, Clark sued to quiet title, claiming he took the whole property as surviving joint tenant. The district court found McKee’s actions showed an intent to sever, converting the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The court reaffirmed that a joint tenant may sever without notice to or consent from the other; that Kansas no longer relies strictly on the four-unities doctrine but looks primarily to a tenant’s intent coupled with effective action; and — critically — that whether McKee’s sale contract was itself legal or enforceable was irrelevant, because performance was not necessary to sever. The severance defeated Clark’s survivorship right and left him a tenant in common with the buyer.
Three things to carry into your files. One: joint tenancy with right of survivorship is not a guarantee — a co-owner can unilaterally sever it during life, without notice or consent, and the survivor then inherits nothing by survivorship. Two: severance turns on intent plus effective action, not on a completed transfer; an unconsummated, even unenforceable, contract to sell the whole parcel — coupled with conduct like vacating and handing over keys — can be enough. Three: for clients who rely on a survivorship deed as their estate plan (the classic joint deed between unmarried partners or a parent and child), that reliance is fragile; if survivorship is the goal, weigh a transfer-on-death deed or a trust, and counsel co-owners that a partner’s late-life dealings can quietly undo the plan.
Clark v. McKee, No. 128,581 (Kan. Ct. App. May 8, 2026) · official opinion — kscourts.gov
This week in Kansas for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Kansas Bar Association, the district probate courts, and KDHE put in front of you.
The KBA CLE calendar, the Real Estate, Probate & Trust Section, and the KDHE/KanCare updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.