Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Pennsylvania T&E solo who knows its own Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries (PEF) Code, Title 20 Pa.C.S. (Pennsylvania has not adopted the UPC) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the Medical Assistance / Community HealthChoices (DHS) slot posture, whether the latest PBA/Philadelphia Bar joint opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Pennsylvania Superior Court decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Pennsylvania lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
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 from the last seven days that I think actually matter to a Pennsylvania T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
Act 50 of 2025 (signed Nov. 24, 2025) amended 20 Pa.C.S. § 2103, effective January 16, 2026, so that when an intestate decedent leaves no identifiable heirs the estate passes to an endowed community fund serving the decedent’s municipality, school district, or county before escheating to the Commonwealth. The same act also raised the small-estate thresholds.
For a Pennsylvania T&E solo, this changes the intestacy backstop you advise on for clients with no living heirs — the default is no longer a straight escheat to the Commonwealth. Cite the post-amendment § 2103 text for any heirless-estate question dated on or after January 16, 2026.
Pa. Act 50 of 2025 amending 20 Pa.C.S. § 2103, eff. Jan. 16, 2026 · barley.com
HB 2124, adopting the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, passed the House Judiciary Committee 26-0 on February 4, 2026 and was laid on the table. Pennsylvania still has no enacted TOD deed as of June 2026.
Until HB 2124 passes both chambers and is signed, the correct client answer remains that Pennsylvania does not allow transfer-on-death deeds for real estate — non-probate real-estate transfer must still run through trusts, joint title, or tenancy by the entirety. If enacted, it would also exempt those transfers from realty transfer tax, so it is worth tracking for clients planning real-estate succession.
Pa. HB 2124 (2025–26 Sess.) · palegis.us
Pennsylvania continues to impose its inheritance tax with no exemption threshold: 0% to a spouse, 4.5% to lineal descendants/ancestors, 12% to siblings, 15% to others, with a 5% discount for payment within three months of death.
Because the tax hits from the first dollar and is keyed to the heir’s relationship to the decedent, the relationship structure of a plan — not just its size — drives the tax. For a Pennsylvania solo, that makes beneficiary selection and the use of spousal and lineal transfers a live tax-planning lever on essentially every estate, however modest.
Pa. inheritance tax · PA Dept. of Revenue · pa.gov/revenue
Decisions from the courts that bind a Pennsylvania practitioner — the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Superior Court, and the Commonwealth Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Pennsylvania, and the Third 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.
Across the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Superior Court, the Commonwealth Court, the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Pennsylvania, and the Third Circuit, no qualifying trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision has been logged with a full citation this period. Per the lane’s no-invent rule, this row says so plainly rather than inflating a holding.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged. CourtListener is used for discovery only and is never cited here as authority.
Awaiting verified weekly signal — CourtListener used for discovery only, never cited as authority.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Pennsylvania’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering Pennsylvania. The lane reads each opinion before it lands here, and reads-and-discards Medicaid program/provider litigation as not T&E. When the trailing window has no new ruling, this row says so plainly rather than inventing one.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority unchanged.
[Official reporter · court · date — never courtlistener.com]
This week in Pennsylvania for the T&E solo with Pennsylvania Medical Assistance clients: the developments from the Pennsylvania Bar Association (Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section) and the PA Department of Human Services (Medical Assistance) that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren’t indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.