Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the West Virginia T&E solo who knows its own Chapters 41–44 (non-UPC, with the UPC augmented-estate elective share and the UTC borrowed in) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the WV Medicaid (Bureau for Medical Services) slot posture, whether the latest West Virginia bar changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in West Virginia 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 West Virginia 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.
2025 House Bill 2867 amended W. Va. Code § 44-1A-2 to preclude an estate that owns probate real property (or any interest in probate real property) from being administered as a small estate by affidavit; the personal-property small-estate cap remains $50,000. Passed April 10, 2025; in effect 90 days from passage (July 9, 2025).
In a state where modest rural estates are often a house plus a small bank account, this narrows a heavily used shortcut and pushes those matters into full appointment-based administration. It raises the value of pre-death non-probate planning — especially the TOD deed under Chapter 36 Article 12 — for any client whose only real asset is the family home.
2025 W. Va. HB 2867 (enrolled) · W. Va. Code § 44-1A-2 · WVLEGISLATURE.GOV · eff. July 9, 2025
2025 House Bill 2501 amended W. Va. Code § 38-10-4 to let a surviving spouse claim the deceased spouse’s bankruptcy homestead exemption so long as the jointly owned home is retained by the survivor; the $35,000 residence exemption (a fixed, non-CPI-indexed figure) is otherwise unchanged.
For a surviving-spouse client carrying debt against a jointly owned home, this preserves exemption value that would otherwise have been lost at the first death. Factor the retained-home condition into any post-death debtor counseling, and remember the $35,000 figure is fixed — don’t index it.
2025 W. Va. HB 2501 · W. Va. Code § 38-10-4 · CODE.WVLEGISLATURE.GOV
The Bureau for Medical Services reissued Provider Manual Chapter 900 (Estate Recovery), revised December 6, 2024, restating the W. Va. Code § 9-5-11c recovery-and-lien framework for current administration of West Virginia Medicaid — recovery against estates of recipients age 55+, deferred while a surviving spouse lives and while a surviving child is under 21 or disabled.
When you cite estate-recovery exposure to a West Virginia client, you can now pair the statute (§ 9-5-11c) with the current agency policy (Chapter 900, rev. 12/6/2024) rather than a stale manual. Confirm the surviving-spouse and minor/disabled-child deferrals against the refreshed chapter before advising on timing.
WV BMS Provider Manual Ch. 900 (Estate Recovery, rev. Dec. 6, 2024) · BMS.WV.GOV
Decisions that bind a West Virginia practitioner — West Virginia’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering West Virginia, 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.
A son contested his father’s 2021 will, alleging lack of testamentary capacity, duress, and undue influence by his siblings; the circuit court granted the estate summary judgment, and that ruling was affirmed on an earlier appeal. The estate and beneficiaries then obtained a $102,951.60 attorney-fee award, the circuit court finding the son had litigated in bad faith because his arguments were speculative and his evidence insufficient to survive summary judgment. The Intermediate Court of Appeals reversed the fee award.
For West Virginia estate litigation, the bar for a bad-faith fee award against a will contestant is high: that a contest fails on summary judgment — even on thin, speculative evidence — does not by itself prove the bad faith needed to shift fees. A contestant can pursue a colorable capacity or undue-influence claim without automatic exposure to the estate’s fees if they lose, and fiduciaries seeking fees must show more than that the challenger came up short.
Stiles v. Estate of Stiles, No. 25-ICA-149 (W. Va. Ct. App. Dec. 22, 2025) — West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals memorandum decision.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from West Virginia’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering West Virginia. 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 West Virginia for the T&E solo with West Virginia Medicaid clients: the developments from the West Virginia State Bar and the Bureau for Medical Services (WV 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.