Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Delaware T&E solo who knows Delaware’s own Title 12 (Decedents’ Estates and Fiduciary Relations) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the Diamond State Health Plan–Plus (DMMA) posture, whether the latest Delaware bar’s ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Delaware Supreme Court decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Delaware 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 several weeks that I think actually matter to a Delaware 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.
HB 297 (85 Del. Laws c. 383), Delaware’s annual Trust Act, was signed and took effect July 23, 2026. It amends 12 Del. C. § 3323 to state the co-fiduciary decision rule directly — a power vested in two fiduciaries or nonfiduciaries must be exercised by both; a power vested in three or more is exercised by a majority, with a dissenting fiduciary protected if the dissent is delivered in writing to the majority. It also moves § 3336 into a new § 3327A (appointment of an officeholder), expands the “officeholder” definition in § 3326 to reach those who may remove or appoint fiduciaries, lets a trustee elect either the transferor’s or the transferee’s governing instrument to control a surviving trust after merger (§§ 3325(29), 3341), and amends § 3345 and 25 Del. C. § 504.
If you draft with co-trustees, the default just became explicit, and the two-trustee case is the one to look at: two must act together, so a deadlock has no statutory tiebreak — the governing instrument has to supply one. Re-read your co-trustee and trust-protector boilerplate against the new § 3323, and note that a dissent only shields the dissenting fiduciary if it is in writing to the majority. The merger election in §§ 3325(29)/3341 is a genuine planning gain for decanting into a modernised instrument.
Del. Gen. Assem., HB 297 (153rd G.A.), 85 Del. Laws c. 383, signed & eff. July 23, 2026 · legis.delaware.gov · HB 297 · 12 Del. C. § 3323
SB 327 (85 Del. Laws c. 346) amends Titles 5 and 12 to authorise a new class of Delaware-regulated trust company: the family trust company, serving a single family and its related trusts, entities and charities. It directs the State Bank Commissioner to establish separate regulations and applications, on the premise that a single-family fiduciary carries a different risk profile from a commercial one. Signed and effective July 13, 2026.
This matters at the referral boundary rather than the drafting desk. For a solo with a high-net-worth family already using Delaware situs, there is now an in-state private-fiduciary charter to weigh against a commercial corporate trustee — but the operative requirements do not exist yet, since the Bank Commissioner has been directed to write them. Track the regulations before advising a family to organise one.
Del. Gen. Assem., SB 327 (153rd G.A.), 85 Del. Laws c. 346, signed & eff. July 13, 2026 · legis.delaware.gov · SB 327
HB 333 (85 Del. Laws c. 281) raises the ceiling for collecting a decedent’s solely-held property without Letters of Administration or Letters Testamentary from $30,000 to $50,000 under the 12 Del. C. ch. 23 small-estate procedure — the first update since 2005. Signed and effective immediately, June 10, 2026; verified on the General Assembly’s own bill record.
A meaningful slice of modest Delaware estates just moved from full administration to the affidavit procedure — re-screen open intakes against the new ceiling before filing for Letters, and update your decision checklist so surviving families aren’t paying for administration the statute no longer requires.
Del. Gen. Assem., HB 333 (153rd G.A.), 85 Del. Laws c. 281, signed & eff. June 10, 2026 · legis.delaware.gov
Decisions that bind a Delaware practitioner — Delaware’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Delaware, including the U.S. Third 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.
This lane reads each new opinion from Delaware’s appellate courts and the federal courts covering Delaware (Third Circuit) before anything 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. For this period’s trailing window, no new verified trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from those courts was identified in the sources reviewed.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged. When the next verified T&E ruling issues, it lands here with the holding and the official cite.
Controlling authority unchanged · Delaware appellate courts · U.S. Third Circuit.
This week in Delaware for the T&E solo with Delaware Medicaid (DMMA) clients: the developments from the Delaware State Bar Association (Estates & Trusts Section), the Delaware Judiciary, and DMMA 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.