Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the North Carolina T&E solo who knows N.C.G.S. Chapters 28A/31 cold but still loses an afternoon a week tracking the current homestead number, the NC Medicaid (DHB) eligibility posture, whether the latest North Carolina bar ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Court of Appeals of North Carolina decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in North Carolina 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 North Carolina 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 North Carolina State Bar, 2024 Formal Ethics Opinion 1, ‘Use of Artificial Intelligence in a Law Practice,’ is an adopted opinion: a lawyer may use a third-party AI tool only after satisfying the confidentiality (Rule 1.6(c)), competence, supervision, verification (Rules 3.3/4.1), and reasonable-billing duties, and the duty of care continues throughout use. The opinion expressly declines to opine on attorney-client privilege, leaving that as a separate legal question.
If you use AI-assisted drafting in a North Carolina T&E practice, this is the adopted standard your conduct is measured against: verify every machine-produced citation, treat client data entering an AI tool as a Rule 1.6 confidentiality question first, and resolve the privilege question yourself before inputting client data — the opinion will not do it for you. Also useful as a checklist against any out-of-state “AI estate-plan” vendor pitch.
N.C. State Bar · 2024 Formal Ethics Opinion 1 · ncbar.gov · 2024 FEO 1
Per the North Carolina General Statutes, Session Law 2025-46, s. 6(b) (effective Sept. 1, 2025, for actions filed on/after that date) amended N.C.G.S. 1C-1601, repealing subdivision (a)(10). The core homestead figure remains the fixed $35,000 of residence equity (rising to $60,000 for an unmarried debtor 65 or older where the property was formerly held by the entireties or in joint tenancy and the co-owner is deceased) — a fixed statutory figure, not CPI-indexed, set by S.L. 2005-401.
Because 1C-1601 was touched this cycle, confirm the operative edition for any debtor by the date the action was filed — the repeal of (a)(10) means a checklist built off the pre-Sept. 2025 statute can over- or mis-state available exemptions. The homestead dollar figures themselves are unchanged, but the surrounding exempt-property structure moved, so re-read the section rather than relying on a cached summary.
N.C.G.S. 1C-1601 (am. S.L. 2025-46, eff. Sept. 1, 2025) · ncleg.gov · G.S. 1C-1601
S 344 (Session Law 2025-24) directs the Department of Health and Human Services to treat a transfer of funds by an individual age 65 or older into a pooled special-needs trust under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(C) as a transfer for fair market value — provided the individual can show the transferred funds are intended to be used by the trust to provide goods and services of equal value within the individual’s life expectancy. Before this, funding a pooled trust after 65 could trigger a Medicaid transfer-penalty (disqualification) period.
For a North Carolina elder-law solo this reopens a planning door for older clients. A disabled adult who needs trust protection after 65 can now fund a pooled (d)(4)(C) trust without the transfer penalty that previously made it impractical — but the fair-market-value treatment is conditioned on the life-expectancy/value showing, so document the client’s intended use and the actuarial basis at funding. Put the pooled-trust option back on your intake for clients over 65 who missed the first-party SNT age-65 cutoff.
N.C. Session Law 2025-24 (S 344), pooled-trust transfer treatment for individuals 65+ · ncleg.gov · S 344
Decisions that bind a North Carolina practitioner — North Carolina’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering North Carolina, including the U.S. Fourth 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.
After the decedent’s death his widow propounded a ‘Revised Will’; his children caveated, alleging forgery. At a pretrial hearing the propounder disclosed that the two attesting witnesses had not signed the will — the notary signed their names at their request because their hands were dirty, with the witnesses and testator present. The trial court granted the caveators summary judgment, and the Court of Appeals affirmed: N.C.G.S. § 31-3.3’s requirements for a written attested will do not permit a witness to have a third party sign on the witness’s behalf, so the will was invalid as a matter of law.
For North Carolina will execution, attestation is not a step you can delegate: each subscribing witness must personally sign. Having a notary — or anyone else — sign a witness’s name, even in the witness’s presence and at their request, voids the attestation and the will. Supervise execution so the witnesses themselves put pen to paper, and confirm the signatures are genuinely theirs before the will is offered for probate.
In re Will of David Anthony Greenamyer, No. COA25-1004 (N.C. Ct. App. June 17, 2026) — North Carolina Court of Appeals opinion.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from North Carolina’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering North Carolina. 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 North Carolina for the T&E solo with NC Medicaid clients: the developments from the North Carolina Bar Association (Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law Section) and NC DHHS (NC 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.