The CFPB and JAGs: partnering to protect servicemembers

Hollister K Petraeus taking charge!

The battle to defend servicemembers and their families from financial sharks has a new development. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Judge Advocate Generals are organizing a partnership for action under the leadership of Holly Petraeus, CFPB’s Assistant Director for the Office of Servicemember Affairs.:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau And Military’s Top Uniformed Lawyers Release Joint Statement Of Principles
July 6, 2011
Partnership Between CFPB and the Offices of the Judge Advocate Generals Will Help Better Protect Servicemembers and their Families from Unlawful Acts and Practices

WASHINGTON – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Judge Advocate Generals of the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard today announced an agreement on a Joint Statement of Principles to provide stronger protections for servicemembers and their families in connection with consumer financial products and services.
The Judge Advocate Generals and the CFPB, among other things, will work together to identify potential violations of federal consumer financial laws and establish a single point of contact within the CFPB’s Enforcement Division that will allow members of the Judge Advocate Generals’ Corps to share information on consumer complaints from servicemembers and military families. In addition, the Offices of the Judge Advocate Generals and the CFPB – including its Office of Servicemember Affairs and Enforcement Division – will create a formal working group with the goal of achieving a coordinated response to unlawful conduct targeted at servicemembers and their families.
“I have worked for years trying to protect military families from predatory practices and to help raise awareness of the unique financial challenges they face – and I know the Judge Advocate Generals have been on the front lines in each of those fights,” said Hollister K. Petraeus, CFPB’s Assistant Director for the Office of Servicemember Affairs. “Servicemembers and their families sacrifice a great deal for our country and they deserve advocates who will use every available resource to protect them from financial threats. Through this partnership and our other efforts, we will work to make sure that the days of military families being easy targets for predatory practices and unscrupulous lenders are a thing of the past.”
“Too often our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen are targeted by predatory lenders and they become victims of unfair financial practices,” said the Judge Advocate Generals in a joint statement. “This agreement recognizes the crucial role financial readiness plays in mission readiness and we look forward to partnering with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to vigorously protect servicemembers and their families from unlawful acts or practices by providers of consumer financial products or services.”
The Judge Advocate Generals and CFPB officials met today to discuss the following goals set forth in the Joint Statement:

• Protecting servicemembers and their families from unlawful acts or practices by providers of consumer financial products or services, including through enforcement actions where necessary;
• Creating mechanisms that enable the Offices of the Judge Advocate Generals to provide input on the Bureau’s efforts to improve the marketplace for servicemembers, their families, and law-abiding businesses;
• Finding ways to work together as efficiently and effectively as possible to address concerns raised by servicemembers and their families about consumer financial products or services; and
• Working with other offices in the Department of Defense to support improved financial literacy training for servicemembers and their families.

The Joint Statement of Principles was signed by: Hollister K. Petraeus, Assistant Director for the Office of Servicemember Affairs, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Richard Cordray, Assistant Director for Enforcement, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Lieutenant General Dana K. Chipman, The Judge Advocate General, United States Army; Major General Vaughn Ary, Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant, United States Marine Corps; Vice Admiral James W. Houck, The Judge Advocate General, United States Navy; Lieutenant General Richard C. Harding, The Judge Advocate General, United States Air Force; and Rear Admiral Frederick J. Kenney, The Judge Advocate General, United States Coast Guard.

Learn More:
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/pressrelease/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-and-militarys-top-uniformed-lawyers-release-joint-statement-of-principles/

US SEC Financial Education For Military Personnel and Their Families

Free Financial Education
For Military Families!

The SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has teamed with the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and the Department of Defense on a multi-faceted financial education program serving members of the military and their families.

It's located here: http://www.sec.gov/investor/military.shtml. A few of the key resources for military families, or anyone advising a military family, include:

• "How to Save and Invest Your Disability Benefits: A Guide for Warriors in Transition". Obtaining the right level of disability benefits is only half the battle; you have to hold on the to benefits and use them very carefully over the rest of your life ... which can mean planning decades in advance! This resource summarizes the issues you must address. 
• Department of Defense’s Financial Readiness Challenge Campaign. Take the Challenge - register for an upcoming event!
• "Money And Mobility". Military families are mobile; deployments and duty station changes have financial challenges you can meet and conquer with the help of this multipage guide. Notice that you can navigate its various chapters by the menu on its left side. You can also read and/or print the whole thing by opening the convenient printer-ready copy. Why not save it to your laptop and review it with your family at your leisure?

There are plenty more resources at http://www.sec.gov/investor/military.shtml and, best of all, if you have a question or think of a topic that would be helpful to servicemembers, the SEC is asking you to ask questions here. Kudos to the SEC and its partners for helping our military families with financial resiliency!

Economic Stimulus Payments for Low-Income Veterans

Per Paralyzed Veterans of America:

"The recently approved economic stimulus package contains a special provision allowing Social Security and veterans benefits to count toward the qualifying income requirement of $3,000 needed to receive the stimulus payment.

Even if a veteran paid no federal income taxes in 2007, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 provides for payments of $300 ($600 if married filing jointly) as well as an additional payment of $300 for each qualifying child for those who qualify..."

More Information: http://www.pva.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8465

The Fund for Veterans Education

The Fund for Veterans’ Education was established by former Navy Lieutenant (now billionaire) Jerome Kohlberg to provide scholarships to veterans from all branches of the United States Armed Forces who served in Afghanistan or Iraq since September 11, 2001 and who are now enrolled in college or vocational-technical school.

According to its website, "Total maximum educational benefit over four years available to veterans who served with active duty units $39,636.; Average four year cost of attending a public university as an in state student $65,428; Average four year cost of a public university as an out of state student $105,216; Average four year cost of a private university $133,204."

Unless and until Congress gets its act together and passes a modern GI Bill, veterans who meet eligibility criteria can apply online for a scholarship: http://www.veteransfund.org/apply.php

Persons wishing to help the fund can find contact information at http://www.veteransfund.org/get_involved.php

Do your research, then be generous!

As Chris Moran reports in the San Diego Morning Tribute:

“This is something we owe,” Kohlberg said. Taking care of returning veterans is part of the cost of war as Kohlberg sees it, just like after World War II. Back then, Kohlberg had just finished three years in the Navy, a lieutenant in charge of the stores the U.S. military shopped at in Panama. When he returned, the U.S. government sent nearly 8 million veterans, including him, to school.

Kohlberg the veteran makes the moral argument that Congress needs to restore the compact between the warriors and their government. Kohlberg the capitalist makes an economic argument. The original GI Bill's massive swords-to-plowshares effort converted the world's mightiest military into a nation's middle class.
With the aid of the U.S. government, Kohlberg got a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College, a master's degree from Harvard Business School and a law degree from Columbia University School of Law. In part because of the help they got from the government, Kohlberg said, his peers got better jobs and spent more money, paid more taxes and assumed more leadership roles in civilian life.

A new GI bill that covers all educational expenses of veterans is a good investment, one he estimates will pay five to 10 times its upfront amount. Kohlberg knows something about investments. As a pioneer of the leveraged buyout, he has amassed a $1.5 billion fortune that according to a Forbes list published this month makes him the world's 785th richest person.

Until Congress agrees to make that investment, Kohlberg will invest on his own.

There is another difference between now and then, Kohlberg said. The current wars have been financed largely by debt, while seemingly everyone in the nation sacrificed for the World War II effort, he said.

Kohlberg said he believes that even those who oppose the Iraq war as he does would agree that the nation must do more to support veterans of that war. “We're lucky we've been just sitting here on our duffs, all of us doing nothing for the war,” Kohlberg said. “We haven't even been asked.”

See full article here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20080326-9999-1m26kohlberg.html
KUDOS to VA Watchdog for publicizing this program!

VA Homeless Providers 'PER DIEM ONLY' Grants

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced about $12 million is available as "per diem only" grants to help programs that help homeless veterans, under the VA Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program.

This Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA), published in the February 15, 2008, edition of the Federal Register, is for eligible programs that have not previously applied for or received per diem in connection with a grant.

Learn more, then act:

• National Coalition for Homeless Veterans announcement (including resources for help in filling out the forms): http://www.nchv.org/news_article.cfm?id=339
• VA's Grant & Per Diem Program Homepage
• View the complete NOFA – including application instructions and directives – go to http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-2933.htm.
  

Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act

Troops who are discharged for injuries they've sustained in combat can be required to refund part of their enlistment bonuses.

Several bills have been introduced to address this insanity, including H.R. 3793 - Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act, H.R. 3793, The Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act of 2007, and/or H.R. 4750, The Tax Relief and Fulfilling Our Obligation to Patriotic Soldiers Act of 2007.

You can

• Write your congresscritter, using this form from Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/436/t/1388/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=21867


• Keep track of the bill: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-3793


• Learn more: http://www.google.com/search?q=Veterans+Guaranteed+Bonus+Act