Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Louisiana T&E solo who knows the Civil Code, forced heirship, and usufruct cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving Louisiana 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 Louisiana 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. Louisiana is the lone civil-law jurisdiction — the common-law “TOD deed / living trust” reflexes do not map cleanly here.
LDH recovery (La. R.S. 46:153.4; LAC Title 50, Pt. I, Subpart 9) reaches assets passing through succession; the claim is a privilege on the succession ranking with expenses of last illness (C.C. art. 3252 et seq.).
There is no TOD deed in Louisiana. Planning runs through donations, usufruct, and entity/succession structuring — not common-law beneficiary deeds or revocable living trusts as used elsewhere.
La. R.S. 46:153.4 · law.justia.com; LDH State Plan Att. 4.17 (ldh.la.gov)
Forced heirs are children under 24 or permanently incapacitated (La. Const. art. XII, § 5; C.C. art. 1493); the surviving spouse takes a usufruct over the decedent’s community share, with children as naked owners (C.C. art. 890).
A Medicaid plan that ignores the legitime or the usufruct can be partially void. The usufruct itself is a recoverable interest only to the extent it falls in the succession — map it carefully.
La. C.C. arts. 1493, 890; La. Const. art. XII § 5 · legis.la.gov
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); the special income standard is $2,982/mo; Louisiana applies the federal $752,000 home-equity floor. UnitedHealthcare exited Louisiana Medicaid effective Dec. 31, 2025, leaving five MCOs.
Community-spouse math and the income cap matter as everywhere; on top, confirm the client’s current Healthy Louisiana plan since UHC departed. Flag the 2028 OBBBA $1,000,000 home-equity cap now.
42 U.S.C. § 1396p · CMS 2026 Standards (medicaid.gov); LDH Healthy Louisiana
Decisions from the courts that bind a Louisiana practitioner — the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, and the Fifth Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: successions and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust and donation construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
Howard Sklar served nearly twelve years as independent executor of his mother Miriam’s succession, which held two valuable Impressionist paintings (a Dufy and a Utrillo, appraised together at $1.17 million) against estate debts exceeding $800,000 and a disputed $7.1 million claim. Howard had informally handed estate jewelry and lesser paintings to his sister and kept the two paintings for himself, but never obtained a judgment of possession. After he resigned and Argent Trust Company became the new independent executor, Argent moved to liquidate the paintings to raise cash for an estate with only $21,000 on hand. Howard sought a preliminary injunction to stop the sale, claiming the paintings were already his. The Second Circuit affirmed the denial. It held that the best evidence of ownership is a judgment of possession — required before distribution under La. C.C.P. art. 3396.18(A) — which Howard never sought despite knowing how (he had obtained three for less valuable assets), so his informal distribution did not vest ownership. It further held that an independent administrator may exercise a succession representative’s powers, including selling property, “without the necessity of delay for objection, or application to or any action in or by, the court” under La. C.C.P. art. 3396.15 — a broader grant than the traditional Article 3261 regime. Howard showed irreparable injury but no likelihood of success, so injunctive relief failed.
Three things to carry into your files. One: in Louisiana an heir or legatee does not own specific succession property until a judgment of possession says so — an executor’s informal allocation of assets, however longstanding, does not transfer ownership, so counsel heirs to reduce distributions to a judgment rather than rely on possession or a handshake. Two: independent administration confers real power — under Article 3396.15 the independent executor can sell estate assets without prior court approval or waiting out objections, and a beneficiary who dislikes a sale cannot enjoin it absent a likelihood of success on ownership. Three: once the act sought to be enjoined has occurred the injunction is moot, so a beneficiary who wants to preserve a unique asset must move early and prove ownership, not merely assert attachment. For the drafter, the case is a caution about decades-long independent administrations and wills that, as Howard conceded, “did not match” the assets.
Succession of Miriam Mandel Sklar, No. 56,771-CA (La. App. 2 Cir. Mar. 27, 2026) · official opinion — la2nd.org
This week in Louisiana for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Louisiana State Bar Association, the parish courts and succession practice, and LDH put in front of you.
The LSBA CLE calendar, the Trusts, Estate, Probate & Immovable Property Section, and the LDH bulletins all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.