The appellant is seeking an amount of accrued benefits greater than the $60.00 she has already been awarded as reimbursement for expenses incurred during her mother's last sickness or burial. She also asserts that the entire accrued benefit amount should be paid to her mother’s estate, which had not received the funds due to VA's failure to timely appoint a fiduciary and establish a fiduciary account on behalf of the Veteran's surviving spouse.
The deciding factor: The appellant has not been scheduled for a hearing before a Decision Review Officer as requested in her appeal, leading to potential prejudice. The case is therefore remanded for this purpose.
- Claimed conditions
- Not specified in this decision
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2019
- Citation
- 19104057
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,810 · Granted: 23% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 19104057.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
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