Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Florida T&E solo who knows the Florida Probate Code (Fla. Stat. ch. 731–735) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC LTC) posture, whether the latest Florida Bar Ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Florida District Courts of Appeal decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Florida 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 Florida 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 Florida Legislature, SB 262 (2025), enacted as ch. 2025-159 effective June 20, 2025, amends the Florida Trust Code: it revises the decanting and principal-invasion power, treats certain lifetime distributions as satisfaction of a devise, and clarifies that moving Florida homestead into a community-property trust between spouses is not a property-tax reassessment event.
For a Florida T&E solo, two changes land at the drafting desk: the revised decanting power may change how you modify an irrevocable trust, and the homestead-into-community-property-trust clarification removes a reassessment worry that previously chilled that planning move. Confirm your decanting and satisfaction-of-devise language against the 2025 amendments, and re-evaluate community-property-trust planning for married Florida homeowners now that the tax-reassessment question is settled.
Florida Legislature · SB 262 (2025), ch. 2025-159 (eff. June 20, 2025) · flsenate.gov · SB 262 (2025)
Per the Florida Department of Children and Families, the 2026 Medicaid long-term-care income cap for a single applicant is $2,982/mo (300% of the Federal Benefit Rate, SSI/FBR-indexed), up from $2,901 in 2025. Florida is an income-cap state, so the figure applies as a hard threshold to SMMC LTC eligibility administered by AHCA and DCF.
Because Florida is an income-cap state, the $2,982 figure is a hard cutoff, not a spend-down target — a client over it cannot simply contribute the excess but needs a Qualified Income Trust (QIT/Miller Trust) to qualify. Apply the new 2026 number when screening this year, and have the QIT ready for any client whose income sits between the old and new caps or just above the threshold.
Florida DCF · 2026 Medicaid LTC income limit ($2,982/mo, single) · myflfamilies.com · income limit
Per the Florida Supreme Court, In re Amendments to Florida Probate Rules, No. SC2025-0667 (2025), amends the Florida Probate Rules (including rule 5.010 and related provisions), with the changes carrying into 2026 probate practice.
Procedural rule changes are the quiet ones that trip up a busy probate practice: a form or checklist built on the prior version of the Florida Probate Rules can produce a defective filing. Read the SC2025-0667 opinion against your current probate forms and calendaring, and update any rule-5 citations or procedures that the amendments touched before your next filing.
Florida Supreme Court · In re Amendments to Florida Probate Rules, No. SC2025-0667 (2025) · flcourts.gov · SC2025-0667
Decisions that bind a Florida practitioner — Florida’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Florida, including the U.S. Eleventh 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 decedent’s widow and children moved to dismiss a Florida ancillary administration for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, arguing there were no Florida assets under section 734.102(1). Without holding an evidentiary hearing on that jurisdictional challenge, the trial court denied the motion, opened the ancillary administration, appointed a curator with full authority to marshal estate assets, and ordered the widow to deposit $50,000 toward the curator’s costs. The Third District reversed and remanded: failing to hold a full evidentiary hearing on the subject-matter-jurisdiction challenge before opening the administration was error requiring reversal, with instructions to hold that hearing.
For Florida probate litigators: when a party challenges subject-matter jurisdiction over an ancillary administration — for example, disputing the existence of Florida assets — the court must hold an evidentiary hearing on that issue before the estate is opened and a curator is empowered. And note the appellate hook: orders giving a curator authority over assets, or requiring a cost deposit, are immediately appealable non-final orders under Fla. R. App. P. 9.130(a)(3)(C)(ii) because they determine the right to immediate possession of property.
De Souza v. Estate of de Oliveira, No. 3D25-1344 (Fla. 3d DCA June 24, 2026) (non-final until disposition of any timely rehearing motion) — official Florida Third District Court of Appeal opinion.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Florida’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering Florida. 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 Florida for the T&E solo with Florida Medicaid (SMMC LTC) clients: the developments from The Florida Bar (RPPTL Section) and the Agency for Health Care Administration 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.