The Board cut off the annuity? I thought those things were supposed to be pre-funded, or is that just one established by a court settlement??
Annuities are contracts between the owner and a life insurance company. The church may have been the owner, providing payments to decedent while alive. When the husband died, the church may have taken over the stream of payments.
Had the owner been the husband, he would have likely had his wife as beneficiary, and thus no problem, as annuities, generally speaking, bypass probate.