Jim,
My grandmother is a beneficiary of VA payments and just received back pay from six years. Her rating was A&A and incompetency for VA purposes. I did not qualify for her fiduciary because of bad credit and no property to place get 84,000.00 bond.Now this Fidcuiary recieved the funds as of November 2012 and he is not required to talk to me about my grandmothers expenses and they will not pay me my reimbursement of 24,866.00 I have written letters requesting his removal, I have written to the OIG and the Department of Communications and Case management and the secretary Eric Sheneski. No response. They ignore every attempt to contact them. Of course this has made me angry....Please tell me how to get this Fiduciary removed because there is another relative we trust that can do this, however the field examiner told plenty of lies about the process. What else can I do to get the immediate removal? Without the reimbursement I cannot pay an attorney. Please help!!! I am willing to do whatever it takes and quickly. My grandmother is 94 years old. What happens to her money if she expires?
Reply:
There is nothing that you can do to initiate an "immediate removal". I'm not sure why you believe you are owed $24,866.00 but I doubt that VA will have any reason to pay that to you. VA will now act to protect her, not you.
To remove a fiduciary requires a formal process of appeal. You have written to all the wrong people. I explain how to formally appeal any fiduciary issue here http://www.vawatchdog.org/fiduciary-appointments.html
You must follow the appeal protocol carefully. If you don't do it the correct way, VA will ignore you. You have no rights or legal standing unless a court had appointed you as guardian before the fiduciary was appointed.
The beneficiary has the right to request the appointment of another relative. The request to make such change must originate from the beneficiary of the VA money...your grandmother. You can't make the request since this doesn't involve you.
However, VA can and will drag out the process. If you have displayed anger and if you are demanding a lot of the retro pay, it won't look good.
If she dies, any VA funds she has may be returned to the VA. There has been a recent federal court ruling that verifies that heirs to an estate have no right to collect VA funds. Only known dependents (school age children, spouses, etc.) will be beneficiary to VA funds. Many lawyers are upset with the ruling and it may be appealed. It could take many years for that to be sorted out.
I've attached the court's ruling for you to read.
If you'd like to pursue this, you should begin the appeal process by writing a letter as I describe on http://www.vawatchdog.org/fiduciary-appointments.html
If you would care to seek legal help, you may want to read http://www.vawatchdog.org/how-to-hire-a-veterans-law-attorney.html However, lawyers are not usually anxious to get involved in fidu cases until you have done your part with the formal appeal. Once you do that and VA denies your grandmother's request for a new fiduciary, then a veterans attorney is more likely to be interested.