My Father was awarded pension benefits approximately 16 months prior to his death in December 2009. However, because the VA determined that a convervator was needed--and because of the slowness of the process--a conservator was never actually appointed and no benefits were paid out before his death.
My question is: who gets the accrued benefits?
From my research on the VA website, it appears that the benefits would go to the children in equal shares (all children are grown with their own families and there is no surviving spouse).
My problem with this is that under my Father's will, the children did not receive equal shares and one child was completely disinherited. However, under the apparent VA distribution scheme, all the children would get the same amount.
This makes little sense to me, because had the benefits actually been paid to me before his death, there would be no question that they would be distributed in accordance with his will.
Neverthless, I present this situation to you good folks to confirm what I think is the case: that all the children will receive equal shares, regardless of what the will states.
Am I correct?
Thank you for your help.