Veterans Affairs Deal With Prudential “Downright Sleazy”

If you thought that the Veterans Administration treated our soldiers and their families horribly, their latest abomination hits an all time low in sleaze. In 1999 The V A and made a secret verbal deal that allows Prudential Insurance to keep control of huge amounts of money owed survivors of service members, short changing the beneficiaries on interest.
Instead of sending fallen soldiers survivors their total due benefit, the company, with the unwritten but tacit agreement of the VA, sent the beneficiaries checkbooks tied to its Alliance Account (general company fund). They kept the money and reaped interest totaling 8 times the amount they were paying to the families. The VA never informed the families of their entitlement to the full lump sum payment. Even more devastating, the survivors were deliberately duped into believing that giving up control of the money was a good deal.
The checks, actually IOUs or drafts, are not covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. If Prudential should lose the funds, the survivors would be out of luck.