Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Indiana T&E solo who knows Indiana’s own Probate Code (Ind. Code Title 29) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the Indiana PathWays for Aging MLTSS program (Indiana Medicaid, run by FSSA) posture, whether the latest Indiana bar ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Indiana Court of Appeals decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Indiana 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 Indiana 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.
The FSSA Medicaid Estate Recovery page has been updated and now reads, verbatim: “Beginning July 1, 2025, the State of Indiana will have nine (9) months to file a claim after the date of death of the decedent.” Confirmed on two state vantages (www.in.gov and the secure.in.gov mirror). The page’s stated year conflicts with the SEA 275 (2026) framing reported elsewhere — the enrolled act’s text and effective date remain unreconciled on the legislature’s own record this pass.
The nine-month bar is now the agency’s published position — calendar it defensively for every estate you open, using the earlier (2025) start date until the enrolled act says otherwise. Where a recovery claim arrives outside the window, the agency’s own page is now your first exhibit.
FSSA, Medicaid Estate Recovery (accessed July 11, 2026) · in.gov/fssa
SB 71 establishes a guardianship-code revision task force, raises the no-court-order minor threshold to $25,000 (UTMA), amends a power of attorney’s personal/family-maintenance authority, and addresses powers of appointment and relation-back. The ISBA Probate, Trust & Real Property Section testified in support.
Several of these reach an Indiana T&E solo’s everyday drafting. The expanded POA maintenance authority and the higher UTMA threshold change how you advise on agent powers and minors’ funds; the guardianship task force signals further change coming. Read the enacted text before updating your POA and guardianship forms — and watch the task force’s output for the next round.
Ind. SB 71 (2026) — various probate matters · legislativeupdate.courts.in.gov · SB 71
Indiana PathWays for Aging, the managed long-term services and supports program for Hoosiers 60+, launched July 1, 2024 (Anthem, Humana, UnitedHealthcare). Separately, FSSA estate recovery defines “estate” broadly — reaching probate AND non-probate transfers, including post-6/30/2002 JTWROS realty, POD/joint accounts, certain annuities, and revocable-trust assets.
Two things to carry into the file. First, PathWays is the operative LTC delivery framework — confirm a client’s managed-care plan before planning around service access. Second, Indiana’s broad recovery definition means probate avoidance is not recovery avoidance: a TOD deed, POD account, or revocable trust does not, by itself, defeat the FSSA claim. Plan recovery as its own problem.
Indiana PathWays for Aging · in.gov/pathways/home · FSSA estate recovery: in.gov/fssa/ompp/medicaid-estate-recovery
Decisions that bind a Indiana practitioner — Indiana’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Indiana, including the U.S. Seventh 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 biological daughter, adopted as a child by her stepfather after her mother married him, petitioned to inherit by intestacy from her biological father’s estate, relying on the stepparent-adoption proviso in Indiana Code § 29-1-2-8. The Court of Appeals affirmed judgment on the pleadings against her: the proviso preserves the adopted child’s inheritance only from the natural parent who married the adopting stepparent (the mother) and from the adoptive parent — it does not revive inheritance from the other natural parent (the biological father) whose legal relationship the adoption severed. The statute is unambiguous, and the contrary reading would illogically let the child inherit from three parents with no reciprocal right back to the severed natural parent.
For Indiana intestacy: a stepparent adoption severs the intestate link between the child and the non-adopting natural parent — that parent’s estate passes as though the adopted-away child were not an heir. Counsel blended families that a child adopted by a stepparent keeps intestate rights only from the custodial natural parent who remarried and from the adoptive parent; to provide for an adopted-away biological child, use a will or beneficiary designation rather than relying on intestacy.
Dasilva v. Grahovac (In re Estate of Morken), No. 26A-ES-12 (Ind. Ct. App. June 26, 2026) (published) — official Indiana Court of Appeals opinion.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Indiana’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering Indiana. 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 Indiana for the T&E solo with Indiana Medicaid clients: the developments from the Indiana State Bar Association and the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA / Indiana 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.