Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the New York T&E solo who knows the EPTL and SCPA cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the region-indexed homestead numbers, the New York Medicaid / Managed Long Term Care (DOH) eligibility posture, whether the latest New York bar ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in New York 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 New York 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 NY State Unified Court System, the Interim Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence took effect October 2025 and governs all judges and nonjudicial staff: approved tools only, mandatory training, and strict confidentiality. Note the intel’s distinction — this UCS policy is a separate instrument from the NYSBA Task Force on AI report (approved by the House of Delegates April 6, 2024); do not conflate the two.
The UCS policy binds the court’s own personnel rather than the practicing bar, but for a New York T&E solo it sets the operating environment your filings land in — assume court staff are working under approved-tools and confidentiality constraints, and align your own AI-use discipline (verify every citation, protect client data) to the standard the courts now hold themselves to. Track the NYSBA report separately as the bar-facing guidance.
N.Y. State Unified Court System · Interim Policy on the Use of AI (eff. Oct. 2025) · nycourts.gov · a.i.-policy.pdf
Per the NY State Department of Health, as of 2026 the DOH 30-month transfer-of-assets lookback for community-based long-term care has still not been implemented (pending CMS approval of the 1115 waiver amendment after years of federal maintenance-of-effort holds). New York is a medically-needy state that does not use the 300% FBR cap; excess income is spent down or directed to a pooled-income trust rather than barring eligibility.
For a New York solo with home-care clients, this is a live planning window: transfers for community-based long-term care are not yet subject to a lookback, so eligibility planning that would be foreclosed in a nursing-home (institutional) posture remains available for community care — but treat it as time-limited and confirm current implementation status at each engagement, because the lookback is enacted and could be switched on once CMS approves.
N.Y. State Dept. of Health · 30-Month Lookback (community-based LTC) · health.ny.gov · 30-month lookback
Per New York’s Real Property Law § 424 (added by L.2024, effective July 19, 2024), New York now authorizes a transfer-on-death deed for the first time: two witnesses present at the same time plus notarization, recorded before the transferor’s death, revocable, with capacity measured as will capacity. Title underwriters issued 2025 guidance on insuring TOD-deed transfers, signaling the tool is moving from novelty into routine real-property practice. (The RPL § 424 statutory text was JS-gated on direct fetch and is corroborated from NYSBA and underwriter sources.)
This is a structural intake change for a New York T&E solo: the TOD deed is now a real probate-avoidance option for the home that did not exist before July 2024, so add it to the planning menu — but mind the same-time two-witness-plus-notary formality and the record-before-death requirement, and check the underwriter guidance before relying on insurability. For now, corroborate against the primary statute before quoting the formalities verbatim.
N.Y. Real Property Law § 424 (eff. July 19, 2024) · nysba.org · New York TOD deeds
Decisions that bind a New York practitioner — New York’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering New York, 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.
A grandfather deeded real property to his grandson, reserving a life estate and a limited power of appointment; under EPTL 6-5.2 the grandson’s remainder was ‘vested’ despite the unexecuted power. The grandson then killed the grandfather and, hours later, himself. The estate’s executors moved to forfeit the remainder under the Riggs v. Palmer slayer doctrine. The Surrogate’s Court denied summary judgment: Riggs is not a bright-line rule but a fact-specific inquiry into the causal link between the wrongdoing and the benefit, and whether the killer acted to profit or accelerate an inheritance. On this record nothing suggested the grandson killed to obtain the property, so the court would not forfeit his interest, and the estate failed to establish entitlement to judgment as a matter of law.
Two points for New York practice. First, a deed reserving a life estate plus a limited power of appointment leaves the remainderman’s interest vested even before the power is exercised (EPTL 6-5.2) — a common planning structure that keeps the asset out of the probate estate while preserving the grantor’s power to redirect it. Second, the slayer rule turns on intent and causation, not the mere fact of a killing: to defeat a wrongdoer’s interest, build a record that the killing was meant to accelerate or secure the benefit. Absent that, forfeiture is not automatic.
Matter of DePonceau, 2026 NY Slip Op 26016 (Sur. Ct., Monroe County Jan. 23, 2026) — New York Official Reports (Surrogate’s Court).
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from New York’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering New York. The lane reads each opinion before it 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. 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 is otherwise unchanged.
This week in New York for the T&E solo with New York Medicaid clients: the developments from the New York State Bar Association (Trusts and Estates Law Section) and the NY State Department of Health (Medicaid) 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.