Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Massachusetts T&E solo who knows the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code (M.G.L. ch. 190B) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the MassHealth slot posture, whether the latest SJC / Rules of Professional Conduct guidance changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Appeals Court of Massachusetts decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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.
Under St. 2023, c. 50, estates of decedents dying on or after January 1, 2023 owe no Massachusetts estate tax at or below $2M (M.G.L. c. 65C § 2A), implemented through a $99,600 credit. The threshold is fixed by statute and will not rise without further legislation.
If your practice still treats the exemption as a number that drifts upward, recalibrate: it is statutorily pinned at $2M and does not index. Estates that creep just over $2M from ordinary asset appreciation will face Massachusetts estate tax even as the federal exemption climbs — flag every file near the line and model the cliff before year-end gifting decisions.
M.G.L. c. 65C § 2A · malegislature.gov · c. 65C § 2A
St. 2024, c. 197 (the LTC Act) amended M.G.L. c. 118E § 31 to limit MassHealth estate recovery to the federally mandated minimum (nursing-facility, HCBS, and related hospital/drug services) and to remove CommonHealth recipients from estate recovery altogether; it was implemented operationally via MassHealth EOM 25-09 (May 2025).
The home re-emerges as a planning asset worth revisiting in every elder-law file. With recovery pulled back to the federal floor and CommonHealth out, plans that were built defensively around the old broader recovery posture may now be over-engineered — re-examine whether trust or life-estate complexity is still earning its keep for a given client.
M.G.L. c. 118E § 31 (as amended by St. 2024, c. 197) · mass.gov · c. 118E § 31
Chief Justice Budd announced interim GenAI guidelines for court staff in the December 2025 State of the Judiciary. The SJC Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct found that existing Rules (1.1 competence, 1.6 confidentiality, 5.1/5.3 supervision) already cover attorney AI use and recommended no new AI-specific rule.
Massachusetts has no attorney-specific AI rule — the December guidelines bind court personnel, not you. Treat AI use as an ‘existing duties apply’ question: competence to evaluate the output, confidentiality of client data fed to a tool, and supervision of staff and the tool itself. Document your verification step; the obligation is yours regardless of how the draft was produced.
Mass. SJC — interim GenAI guidelines (Dec. 2025); RPC 1.1/1.6/5.1/5.3 · mass.gov · AI guidance
Decisions that bind a Massachusetts practitioner — Massachusetts’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Massachusetts, including the U.S. First 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.
Objectors to a 2020 will moved for summary judgment on the narrow ground that the conservator had not followed the statutory and decretal procedures for making the will. The probate judge instead invalidated the will on testamentary capacity — a ground the objectors had not raised — and dismissed the petition. The Appeals Court vacated: granting summary judgment on grounds not advanced by the moving party, without notice and an opportunity to be heard, and without viewing the record in the light most favorable to the proponent, was error.
For Massachusetts will contests: a judge cannot grant summary judgment on an unraised theory — the proponent is entitled to notice and a chance to marshal evidence on the actual ground of decision. When a will is executed by a person under conservatorship, expect litigation over both the conservatorship procedures and testamentary capacity, and keep the summary-judgment record tied to the grounds the movant actually pleaded.
Matter of the Estate of Jasiul, No. 25-P-473 (Mass. App. Ct. Apr. 10, 2026) — official Massachusetts Appeals Court opinion.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Massachusetts’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering Massachusetts. 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 Massachusetts for the T&E solo with MassHealth clients: the developments from the bar and MassHealth (EOHHS) 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.