Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Kentucky T&E solo who knows the probate statutes cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving Kentucky 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 Kentucky 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.
Kentucky does not recognize transfer-on-death (beneficiary) deeds; repeated bills (HB 94, HB 72, HB 50) have failed. SB 34 (2026 Regular Session) again proposed a Uniform Real Property TOD Act — passed the Senate (engrossed March 13, 2026), referred to the House Local Government Committee, and died there (last action April 15, 2026).
Until enacted, the Kentucky probate-avoidance toolkit for real property is joint tenancy, life estate, or a funded trust — not a beneficiary deed. Watch SB 34’s fate this session.
Ky. SB 34 (2026 RS) · apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/sb34.html
907 KAR 1:585 defines the recoverable estate to include assets passing by joint tenancy, tenancy in common, survivorship, life estate, or living trust — not just the probate estate.
The home held in a life estate or living trust is not automatically beyond DMS recovery. Note the exemptions: surviving spouse, minor/disabled child, or small estates fall outside recovery.
907 KAR 1:585 · law.cornell.edu; CHFS DMS Estate Recovery FAQ (chfs.ky.gov)
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); the special income standard is $2,982/mo. Kentucky 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 Kentucky practitioner — the Supreme Court of Kentucky and the Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky, and the Sixth 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.
The lane reads each new opinion from this state’s appellate courts and the federal courts that cover it, and reads-and-discards matters that are not trusts-and-estates (criminal, family-law, and commercial disputes — including cases where a trust or estate appears only as a party’s capacity, not as a T&E holding). For this period, no material trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery ruling surfaced.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; plan and draft against the controlling statutes and prior authority unchanged.
This week in Kentucky for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Kentucky Bar Association, the district probate courts, and CHFS / DMS put in front of you.
The KBA CLE calendar, the Probate & Trust Law Section, and the DMS estate-recovery updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.