Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Vermont T&E solo who knows the Probate Division cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving DVHA 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 Vermont 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.
DVHA recovers long-term-care costs from the probate estate of a recipient who received care at 55+ (33 V.S.A. ch. 19, § 1908a); Vermont is an “estate-only” recovery state, and recovery is deferred where a spouse, or a child under 21 or blind/disabled, survives.
This is the structural fact a VT Medicaid plan is built around. Keeping the home out of the probate estate — trust funding, an enhanced life estate deed — is the recovery shield; the trap is the unfunded trust.
33 V.S.A. § 1908a · legislature.vermont.gov · dvha.vermont.gov
Vermont has not adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, so there is no real-property TOD deed. It did enact an Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act (effective 2020), letting an owner retain full lifetime control and pass the property outside probate.
Reach for the enhanced life estate deed, not a TOD deed, in Vermont — and confirm how DVHA treats the retained interest before relying on it for Medicaid purposes.
Vt. Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act (2020) · legislature.vermont.gov
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); MMNA tops out at $4,066.50; with Vermont’s higher home values, note it still applies the lower $752,000 home-equity limit.
Two places this lands: community-spouse protection math and higher-value VT homes 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 Vermont practitioner — the Vermont Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, and the Second 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 revocable trust’s remainder beneficiary, alleging the settlor had been incapacitated for years and that the trust report omitted assets, demanded information about the trust’s administration. The Vermont Supreme Court held she had no such right while the settlor was alive. Under 14A V.S.A. § 603(a), “[w]hile a trust is revocable, rights of the beneficiaries are subject to the control of, and the duties of the trustee are owed exclusively to, the settlor,” so the § 813 duty to inform runs only to the settlor until the trust becomes irrevocable. Vermont deliberately declined to adopt the Uniform Trust Code’s optional “and the settlor has capacity” language, so “[t]he fact that the settlor becomes incapacitated does not convert a revocable trust into an irrevocable trust.” The court did, however, reverse and remand on a narrow point: because the bar on beneficiary petitions applies while a trust is revocable “and the settlor has capacity,” an incapacitated-settlor scenario can permit a beneficiary to petition to remove a co-trustee, and the trial court erred by not considering that request.
For planners, a Vermont revocable trust keeps administration private from remainder beneficiaries even after the settlor loses capacity — a meaningful confidentiality feature, and a reason the agent acting under a durable power should be the one watching the trustee. For beneficiaries, incapacity alone does not unlock § 813 information rights; the available lever is a § 706 petition to remove a co-trustee, so frame the relief around removal rather than an accounting demand while the settlor lives.
In re Trust of Marsha Milot, 2026 VT 7 (Vt. Mar. 6, 2026) · official opinion — vermontjudiciary.org
This week in Vermont for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the Vermont Bar Association, the Probate Division, and DVHA put in front of you.
The VBA CLE calendar, the Estate Planning, Probate & Trust Law section, and the DVHA notices all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.