Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Iowa T&E solo who knows Iowa Code ch. 633 (Iowa’s own Probate Code, Title XV) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead posture, the Iowa Medicaid / IA Health Link estate-recovery reach, whether the Iowa bar’s latest ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Iowa Court of Appeals decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Iowa 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 an Iowa 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 Iowa State Bar Association’s 2025 Probate Section legislative materials, the omnibus added Iowa Code § 633.163 (fee-shifting in disputed probate), § 614.1(2B) (a two-year statute of repose), amended § 633.336 (wrongful-death allocation that preserves the ch. 249A Medicaid recovery claim), and moved the § 633.361 inventory deadline from 90 to 120 days, effective July 1, 2025.
For an Iowa T&E solo, three of these bite at the desk: the fee-shifting provision changes the cost calculus of contesting or defending a probate dispute; the two-year statute of repose is a hard deadline to calendar on every estate; and the extra 30 days on the inventory deadline is breathing room worth knowing before you promise a personal representative a date. Refresh your administration checklist against the current code.
Iowa Code ch. 633 (2025 probate omnibus — incl. new § 633.163 fee award) · LEGIS.IOWA.GOV · Iowa Code ch. 633
This slot holds the week’s second Iowa-specific development — a bill with a verifiable committee vote on the legislature’s record, a newly-issued Iowa bar ethics opinion, a Iowa bar section notice, or a Medicaid agency bulletin. The orchestrator populates it from primary sources and the tr-cite below carries the source URL so the reader can verify before using it with a client.
[Per-state why-it-matters paragraph lands here once the headline item is populated.]
[Primary-source citation with URL]
Per the Iowa State Bar Association’s legislative materials, SF 408 — which would have authorized a transfer-on-death deed for real property — again failed to advance in the 91st General Assembly, following an earlier HF 125 that died. Iowa’s transfer-on-death mechanism remains limited to securities under Iowa Code ch. 633D; there is still no beneficiary deed for real property.
For an Iowa T&E solo this is a live intake signal: every client who assumes a “TOD deed” will keep real estate out of probate — often after reading national content or using an out-of-state form — is wrong here, and the plan needs a revocable trust, joint tenancy, or life estate to reach the same result. It also means Iowa’s expanded estate recovery, which reaches non-probate assets, still has more to claw back. Re-file the question for the next session.
Iowa SF 408 (91st G.A.) — did not pass · LEGIS.IOWA.GOV · SF 408
Decisions that bind a Iowa practitioner — Iowa’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Iowa, including the U.S. Eighth 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 105-year-old testator with no children left her residuary estate equally to eight people, excluding a niece who had been a beneficiary under a prior will. The excluded niece sued to set the will aside, alleging the favored niece unduly influenced the testator and tortiously interfered with her inheritance. The district court granted the proponent summary judgment, and the Court of Appeals affirmed: the challenger pointed to declining health, mobility issues, and an episode of delirium, but produced no competent evidence the testator was ‘mentally weak’ or susceptible, and undue influence requires a solid foundation of facts — not suspicion — dominating at the moment of execution.
For Iowa will contests: age, frailty, and dependence on caregivers do not, without more, create a jury question on undue influence — the challenger must show susceptibility and influence that dominated at the time of execution. To defend a will against an excluded heir, document the testator’s capacity and independence contemporaneously; to bring such a contest, marshal concrete evidence beyond the testator’s medical conditions.
In re Estate of Langer (Buck v. Mock), No. 25-1420 (Iowa Ct. App. June 10, 2026) — official Iowa Court of Appeals opinion.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Iowa’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering Iowa. The lane reads each opinion before it lands here, and reads-and-discards criminal, family, commercial/LLC-fiduciary, and tax matters as not T&E. When the trailing window has no further ruling, this row says so plainly rather than inventing one.
Nothing further to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority unchanged.
Official reporter · court · date — populated when the next verified ruling lands.
This week in Iowa for the T&E solo with Iowa Medicaid (IA Health Link) clients: the developments from the Iowa State Bar Association (Probate, Trust & Estate Planning Section) and Iowa Health and Human 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.