Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Tennessee T&E solo who knows the probate practice cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving TennCare 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 Tennessee 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 Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-5-116, TennCare recovers long-term-care costs from the probate estate of a CHOICES member who received care at 55+; the personal representative must obtain a TennCare release before the estate is closed, and the claim has third priority (after administration and funeral costs).
This is the structural fact a TN Medicaid plan is built around. A funded revocable trust keeps the home out of the probate estate; the malpractice trap is closing an estate without pulling the release.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-5-116 · tn.gov/tenncare/legal/estate-recovery.html
The Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act (114th GA SB 984 / HB 1793) was introduced with a proposed July 1, 2025 effective date. HB 1793 was sponsor-withdrawn February 25, 2026; SB 984 died at the 114th GA sine die on April 23, 2026. Tennessee still has no real-property TOD deed; reintroduction would be needed.
Don’t reach for a TOD/beneficiary deed in TN yet — it isn’t effective. Use trust funding, joint tenancy, or life estates, and watch SB 984/HB 1793 for the July 2026 date.
Tenn. SB 984 / HB 1793 (114th GA) · capitol.tn.gov/Bills/114
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); the 300%-FBR institutional income cap is $2,982/mo; Tennessee 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 flat $1,000,000 equity cap (eff. Jan 1, 2028) now.
42 U.S.C. § 1396p · CMS 2026 Standards (medicaid.gov)
Decisions that bind a Tennessee practitioner — the Tennessee Supreme Court and the Tennessee Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts in Tennessee, 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. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
A settlor’s living trust gave his wife life estates in the residence and other assets, then dedicated articles directing those remainders to his daughter, granddaughters, and a college after her death — while a separate marital trust was to hold “the remaining trust property.” As trustee and life tenant, the wife claimed the remainders had passed into the marital trust she controlled and announced plans to sell the residence and keep the proceeds; the remainder beneficiaries petitioned to construe the trust. Reading the instrument as a whole to find the settlor’s intent, the Court of Appeals held the remainders did not pour into the marital trust: the settlor “dedicated pages of the Trust explaining to whom the future interests were to pass,” so they were already disposed of, and the wife’s reading would render “the creation of the life estates . . . meaningless.” It affirmed that construction but reversed in part to hold the remainders are contingent, not vested, because the takers cannot be ascertained until the wife’s death, and upheld exclusion of the drafting attorney’s testimony where no offer of proof was made.
When you pour “remaining” or “residuary” trust property into a marital or survivor’s trust, say expressly whether the remainders of the spouse’s life estates are excluded — otherwise a surviving-spouse trustee may argue she can sell the assets and defeat the remaindermen, and you have bought a construction fight. Litigators should note the court’s readiness to subordinate an isolated “remaining trust property” clause to the instrument’s overall dispositive plan, and its holding that such remainders are contingent on surviving the life tenant.
In re Carl Edwin Osborne, Jr. Living Trust, No. W2024-01768-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 28, 2026) (published) · official opinion — tncourts.gov
This week in Tennessee for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Tennessee Bar Association, the chancery/probate courts, and TennCare put in front of you.
The TBA CLE calendar, the Estate Planning & Probate Section, and the TennCare notices all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.