One never knows in these things, without seeing the papers. But if this was a second wife, and children from a first marriage that ended in divorce, you can guaran-darn-tee that there's bad blood between them.
Unless she was cut out of the will entirely, she'd be better off with the principal of her share rather than merely the interest income.
Wasn't thinking of interest income. Was thinking about other forms of unearned income like income from things like real property investments. Better to be collecting the rents on an entire apartment complex than settling an estate and be collecting the rents on a percentage of the apartments in the complex sort of thing.
Bringing it up only to point out that 'following the money' can mean that there are multiple trails to explore.