In other words, she could have steered great big gobs of money to her friends and contributors.  

The money would have come in the form of "Commissions" and fees which the law provides for trustees, accountants, lawyers, guardians, and similar posts involved in the administration of trusts and estates.  

"Commissions", BTW, are what the law calls the basis for the fees given to people like executors, guardians and the like.  Commissions are based upon the amount of money/property being dealt with, usually on a sliding percentage basis (like, picking numbers from a hat, 3 percent on the first half million, another 2 percent on the next half million, and 1/2 percent on the amount over and above that).  

The amount of commissions has almost no relation to the amount of work done.  I once represented a trustee - a CPA - whose job entailed making sure the CDs (the required form of investment)that belonged to the orphaned kid whose property he was watching were rolled over every year, that the kid's taxes got done, and that any bills not covered by his Social Security survivors' benefits got paid.  That, and fending off the occasional telephone call from a grasping relative.  All told, he might have spent 10 or 20 hours a year on the job, total.  And every year he had to present the Court an accounting, for which he hired me.  

The first year, being a CPA, he figured out what his normal bill would be - IIRC he was charging $200 to do state and federal tax returns - and presented it to the Court.  It was rejected:  "You're not charging enough.  Get a lawyer and have him explain commissions to him."

When I told him that, instead of about $750 total he'd billed, he would be getting somewhere in the low five figures, I got a new best friend and very nice lunches on a regular basis thereafter.

One of the people who really built the electronic trading system and market-making systems in place today was arrested and arraigned this morning.  And sued by the SEC.  Because, as he stated, his firm was and is a complete Ponzi scheme, with estimated losses of $50 Billion (with a "B").

Bernard Madoff, founder and president of a New York firm that invested funds for wealthy individuals, hedge funds and other institutions, was charged with operating what he told employees was a long-running $50 billion Ponzi scheme in what may be one of the largest frauds in history.

Madoff, 70, head of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was arrested today at 8:30 a.m. by the FBI and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Eaton in Manhattan federal court. Charged in a criminal complaint with a single count of securities fraud, he was released on $10 million bond guaranteed by his wife and secured by his apartment. Madoff, wearing a white-striped shirt, dark-colored pants and no tie, looked down as he left the courtroom with his wife, declining to comment.

"It's all just one big lie," Madoff told his employees on Dec. 10, according to the government. The firm, Madoff allegedly said to them, is "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme."