Dependency and Indemnity Compensation
Cause-of-death opinions for survivors' claims.
When a veteran dies, VA asks whether a service-connected condition caused the death or contributed substantially or materially to it. A physician reads the veteran's records and the records of the death, and answers that question in writing, cited to the page.
What VA weighs in a survivor's claim
The test in the regulation
A contributory cause must have contributed substantially or materially, combined to cause death, or aided or lent assistance to it, under 38 CFR 3.312. A condition that only shared casually in the death does not meet it. The opinion answers that test and no other.
The records of the death
The death certificate, any autopsy, and the final hospital records come first. When the certificate does not name the service-connected condition, the opinion says why that is or is not the end of the question, from the records.
A named physician on the signature line
Every opinion is written and signed by a licensed physician. The physician states the medical reasoning that connects the condition to the death, or says plainly that the records do not support it.
What helps the review
- The death certificate, and any autopsy report.
- Treatment records from the last years of the veteran’s life, and the records of the final illness or hospital stay.
- The veteran’s service treatment records and any VA rating decision showing what was service connected.
- Any earlier decision on a claim for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.
Please do not email records. Once you go ahead we send a private upload link that opens into your own case.
What you pay, in order
- Step 01
Start with the $350 records review. A physician reads the records and tells you in writing whether they support an opinion that a service-connected condition caused or contributed to the death.
- Step 02
If they do and you proceed, that $350 is credited in full toward the opinion.
- Step 03
The opinion is $1,500 all-in. If the records do not support it, the review says so and we stop there.
We are a medical practice. We prepare the medical opinion. A VA-accredited attorney, agent or service organization files and argues the claim, and VA decides it.
Questions families ask before they pay
- What does a DIC cause-of-death opinion decide?
- VA pays Dependency and Indemnity Compensation when a service-connected condition was the principal cause of a veteran's death or contributed substantially or materially to it, under 38 CFR 3.312. The opinion is a physician's answer to that question, reasoned from the veteran's records and the records of the death. VA decides the claim.
- The death certificate does not name the service-connected condition. Is that the end of it?
- Not always. A death certificate records the immediate and underlying causes and is not a finding that nothing else contributed. Whether another condition contributed is a medical question the records answer or do not. The review tells you which, in writing, before any opinion is bought.
- Who can request a DIC opinion?
- A surviving spouse, child or parent who is claiming, or someone helping them. A person acting for the claimant tells us what lets them do so, such as a power of attorney. We are a medical practice: we prepare the opinion, and a VA-accredited representative can file and argue the claim.
- Is the $350 records review credited if I move forward?
- Yes. If your claim continues after the written assessment, $350 of the $350 review is credited against the nexus opinion or DBQ. If we tell you in writing that the record cannot support the claim, you have spent $350 and we stop there.
- What if you cannot support my claim?
- We tell you in writing and stop. The records review fee pays for that answer in either direction. We never write an opinion the record cannot carry, and we never take a percentage of back pay.