Your state's pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Wisconsin T&E solo who knows the probate code and the Marital Property Act cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the moving ForwardHealth / estate-recovery 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 Wisconsin 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.
Recovery reaches the member's estate, the surviving spouse's estate, certain nonprobate property (life estates, living trusts), and liens on the home (Wis. Stat. §§ 49.496, 49.682, 49.849; expansion since 2014).
This is the structural fact a Wisconsin Medicaid plan is built around — a TOD deed or living trust alone does not defeat recovery, and recovery can reach assets at the community spouse's later death. Plan for nonprobate reach, not just probate avoidance.
Wis. Stat. §§ 49.496, 49.682, 49.849 · docs.legis.wisconsin.gov
Wisconsin is a marital-property (community-property-equivalent) state; the estate-recovery presumption that the community spouse's assets also belonged to the institutionalized spouse is read consistently with Wis. Stat. § 766.31. The TOD deed lives at § 705.15 and requires spousal joinder under the Marital Property Act.
Marital property gives a double step-up at the first death — but the same classification feeds the expanded-recovery presumption. Coordinate the basis benefit, the § 705.15 joinder requirement, and the recovery exposure in one analysis.
Wis. Stat. ch. 766 (§ 766.31); § 705.15 · docs.legis.wisconsin.gov
Maximum CSRA is $162,660 (minimum $32,532); Wisconsin applies the higher $1,130,000 home-equity limit; MMNA range $2,643.75–$4,066.50.
Two places this lands: community-spouse protection math and high-value-home clients — Wisconsin's higher home-equity tier matters for those clients. Flag the 2028 OBBBA flat $1,000,000 home-equity cap now.
42 U.S.C. § 1396p · CMS 2026 Standards (medicaid.gov)
Decisions that bind a Wisconsin practitioner — the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts in Wisconsin, and the Seventh 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, guardianship, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
A county filed its annual petition to review an existing protective placement four days after the Wis. Stat. § 55.18(1)(a) deadline; the protected person argued the late filing stripped the circuit court of competency to continue the placement. The Court of Appeals reached the merits despite non-preservation, given the liberty interests, and held the deadline is directory, not mandatory, so a late filing does not defeat the court’s competency. The Legislature imposed no penalty for late filing and built in mechanisms that contemplate untimely filings, and a mandatory reading would produce “absurd consequences” — a single late petition would forever bar review of an indefinite, still-active placement, with “no way for a circuit court to regain competency.” The court distinguished Chapter 51 commitment-timing cases as involving initial proceedings and changes in liberty, whereas a Chapter 55 annual review only re-examines an ongoing placement, and cautioned that “directory should not be read to imply that the provision is merely discretionary” — timely review remains “statutorily and constitutionally—required.”
For elder-law counsel, a county’s late annual-review filing is no longer a competency silver bullet to void a protective placement — but the deadline still binds, and the register-in-probate reporting mechanism and the mandatory evaluation requirement remain available to police chronic county delay. If you represent a protected person, preserve any competency objection in the circuit court rather than holding it for appeal, and use the statutory delay-policing tools instead of relying on the deadline to be jurisdictional.
In re Guardianship & Protective Placement of J.J., No. 2024AP1850 (Wis. Ct. App. Feb. 10, 2026) (rec. for publication) · official opinion — wicourts.gov
This week in Wisconsin for the T&E solo with Wisconsin Medicaid / ForwardHealth clients: what the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section, and DHS estate-recovery bulletins put in front of you.
The State Bar of Wisconsin CLE calendar, the RPPT Section, and the DHS / ForwardHealth estate-recovery updates all publish on different schedules. This is that sift, already done, with the link on each item.