Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Connecticut T&E solo who knows Connecticut’s regional Probate Court system (Conn. Gen. Stat. Title 45a) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the HUSKY Health / HUSKY C (CMAP) posture, whether the latest Connecticut bar’s ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Connecticut Appellate Court decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Connecticut 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 Connecticut 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.
Per the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, the Connecticut estate- and gift-tax exemption is $13.99M for 2025 (matching the federal basic exclusion), with a flat 12% rate above the threshold and a $15M aggregate tax cap. Connecticut remains the only state that imposes a standalone gift tax.
For a Connecticut T&E solo, the standalone gift tax is the trap an out-of-state planner misses: lifetime gifts that would be federally and otherwise state-free can still trigger a Connecticut filing, and the unified exemption is shared across gift and estate. Confirm the current-year figure before papering any large gift, and don’t assume federal-exemption headroom translates into Connecticut headroom.
Connecticut DRS · Estate and Gift Taxes · portal.ct.gov/drs · estate & gift taxes
Per the Connecticut General Assembly bill record, 2025 HB-6896 — which would have adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act — died in committee. Real-property TOD deeds remain unavailable in Connecticut; transfer-on-death exists only for securities and registered accounts under Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 45a-468 to 45a-468m.
Don’t let a client — or an out-of-state form vendor — assume a real-property TOD deed is valid in Connecticut; it is not, and a deed drafted on that assumption would fail. Probate-avoidance for Connecticut real property still runs through the established tools (survivorship, trust, life estate), not a TOD deed. This is a live intake check: confirm any ‘beneficiary deed’ the client brings in is for securities, not realty.
Connecticut General Assembly · 2025 HB-6896 (URPTODA, died in committee) · cga.ct.gov · 2025 HB-6896
Per Connecticut Public Act 21-3 (eff. July 1, 2021), the Department of Social Services ended and released its pre-death real-property liens. But Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17b-95 still authorizes post-death recovery against the decedent’s estate for amounts federal law requires Connecticut to recover for long-term-care Medicaid — with priority over unsecured claims except limited last-sickness and funeral expenses. The lien is gone; the recovery is not.
The lien-vs-recovery distinction is the one to keep straight for a Connecticut Medicaid client: the relief from pre-death liens does not mean the estate is safe from recovery after death. Plan the estate on the assumption that § 17b-95 recovery still applies to LTC benefits, and don’t reassure a client that ‘the lien is gone’ without explaining that post-death recovery survives.
Connecticut P.A. 21-3 (eff. July 1, 2021) · Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17b-95 · cga.ct.gov · 2021 PA 21-3
Decisions that bind a Connecticut practitioner — Connecticut’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Connecticut, including the U.S. 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.
This lane reads each new opinion from Connecticut’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Connecticut (Second Circuit) before anything lands here, and reads-and-discards matters that aren’t trusts-and-estates — criminal, family, commercial/LLC fiduciary, tax, and cases where an estate or trust is only a party. For this period’s trailing window, no new verified trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from those courts was identified in the sources reviewed.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged. When the next verified T&E ruling issues, it lands here with the holding and the official cite.
Controlling authority unchanged · Connecticut appellate courts · U.S. Second Circuit.
This week in Connecticut for the T&E solo with HUSKY C / Medicaid clients: the developments from the Connecticut Bar Association (Estates & Probate Section), DSS, and the Department of Revenue Services 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.