Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Rhode Island T&E solo who knows the Probate Court practice cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving EOHHS 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 Rhode Island 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.
Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 40-8-15, assistance paid for a recipient age 55+ is a lien on the “estate,” defined as property within the recipient’s probate estate; the lien does not attach where a spouse, or a child under 21 or who is blind/disabled, survives.
This is the structural fact a RI Medicaid plan is built around. A funded revocable trust or other non-probate transfer is the recovery shield; the trap is the unfunded trust that leaves the home in probate.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 40-8-15 · webserver.rilegislature.gov
The Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act has been introduced repeatedly (2024 S 2027/H 8130; 2025 S 0141) but each version has died at session-end. 2025 S 0141 died in Senate Judiciary at the 2025 sine die (~6/20/2025). RI real estate still passes by deed, survivorship, trust, or probate.
Don’t reach for a TOD/beneficiary deed in RI — it doesn’t exist yet. Use joint tenancy, life estates, or trust funding, and watch the bill in case the lapsed gap closes.
R.I. 2025 S 0141 (died at sine die) · webserver.rilegislature.gov
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); MMNA tops out at $4,066.50; Rhode Island applies the lower $752,000 home-equity limit.
Two places this lands: community-spouse protection math and clients near the equity line. Flag the OBBBA changes (flat $1,000,000 equity cap effective Jan 1, 2028) now.
42 U.S.C. § 1396p · CMS 2026 Standards (medicaid.gov)
Decisions that bind a Rhode Island practitioner — the Rhode Island Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, and the First 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 testator left his estate equally to seven children, naming two as co-executors, and authorized executor sales without probate approval after mailing the children a purchase option. After a defective option letter that omitted the sale terms drew no response, one co-executor bought the family home for $260,000 — below a $330,000 appraisal — funding part of the price with an advance on his own estate share, all without probate approval. The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed voiding the sale. G.L. § 33-19-9 is mandatory: an executor may buy estate real estate only on a petition with notice, and the court must fix a minimum price to ensure his “dual capacity as both co-executor and purchaser did not prejudice the remaining beneficiaries.” Setting his own price and advancing himself funds was prohibited self-dealing. The will could not override the statute — “where the testator’s will and § 33-19-9 conflict, the statute controls” — and the option was independently invalid for lacking essential terms like price.
A fiduciary who wants to buy estate property must petition the probate court and accept a court-fixed minimum price, no matter what the will says — a “sell without probate approval” clause does not reach a self-purchase, and skipping the court makes the sale void as self-dealing. If you draft keep-it-in-the-family purchase options, spell out the essential terms (price, conditions, deadlines) or the option is unenforceable, and counsel any fiduciary-buyer to get court approval before closing rather than relying on beneficiary silence.
Fairhurst v. Fairhurst, No. 2024-329-Appeal (R.I. May 28, 2026) · official opinion — courts.ri.gov
This week in Rhode Island for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the RI Bar, the Probate Courts, and EOHHS/RICR bulletins put in front of you.
The RI Bar CLE calendar, the Probate & Trust committee, and the EOHHS RICR updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.