Rupert, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

The "spouse benefit" referred to by the quoted language is one-half of your former spouse's benefit, not his actual benefit amount. "Spouse benefit" means the benefit payable to a person's spouse (or former spouse, in this case). If your individual benefit under your record is higher than the spouse benefit payable under your former spouse's record, which is one-half his benefit, then you would only receive your individual benefit. So it sounds like you are getting the maximum amount you are entitled to.

If you are named as the POD beneficiary on your father's bank account, that account became yours at his death and did not become part of his estate. It's not even your responsibility to use it to pay estate related expenses or expenses related to his death: it's your money, not his. His probate estate assets are supposed to be used to pay for expenses relating to his death, his debts, and similar items. If your father was receiving nursing home Medicaid benefits before his death, there may be some ability for the state to come after the funds from the POD account, under an estate recovery program, because in Georgia the concept of estate recovery is being applied to assets other than strictly probate estate assets. And if he had income tax or other tax liens, then you may have some potential liability to turn over the assets to the tax department. But in general, as stated above, assets from a POD account which came to you under the POD designation are yours, and are not subject to paying estate debts or expenses.