NWX-CFPB HQ

Moderator: Adebukola Dada
March 21, 2019
2:00 pm CT


Coordinator:	Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session. At that time to ask a question, you may press star 1. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time. And now I'll turn today's meeting over to (Bucolla Dada). You may begin.

(Adebukola Dada):	Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us in our third installment of our Third Thursday's Community College Webinar series. Today we will focus on financial education resources for veterans.

	My name is (Adebukola Dada) and I work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Students, as an outreach specialist.

	We have three speakers lined up today. From Consumer Financial Protection Bureau we'll hear from Tony Camilli. We'll also hear from Kim Myers from the Department of Defense and Daniel Avegalio from Sierra Community College.

	Before we get started, I have to give our legal disclaimer as an employee of CFPB. This presentation does not constitute legal interpretation, guidance or advice of the CFPB. Any opinions or views stated by the presenter are the presenter's own and may not represent the Bureau's views.

	We are not affiliated with and do not endorse any of the speakers or entities participating in today's presentation.

	Now with that being said I will turn things over to our first presenter, Tony Camilli.

Tony Camilli:	Thank you, (Bukola). Well, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Tony Camilli and I am going to be talking to you a little bit today about some of the CFPB's tools and resources for college administrators that serve veterans as well as for the veterans themselves if it's something that you work - if it's a group you work regularly with you can pass these on as tools that are available to them.

	Next slide, please. I'm just going to go ahead and skip this because (Bukola) already covered it. Sorry. We got ourselves mixed up there with double disclaimers.

	This is me, who I am. As you can see I am a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve. I have been in the Reserve 10 years - I'm sorry, 11 years and I was on active duty for about 7 years.

	So I've got about 18 years of experience now working inside the military population which I really credit that gave me lot of insight as to how this community operates and also the comings and goings of what things are changing in the military population.

	Next slide, please. So here is a little bit about what I'm going to cover. I'm not going to read this to everybody but just these four topics. And I've only got about 15 minutes so I will be pretty brief on most of the slides, but I believe we're going to have time at the end of the webinar to receive and answer questions.

	Next slide, please. All right. Next slide. So a little background about the CFPB. I'm not going to read it. But I know these slides are going to be provided to all participants after the webinar itself so I wanted you to have this.

	This tells you a little bit about our mission statement and our vision statement. And, like I said, I'm not going to read it to you but I wanted it to be in the slide deck so people can refer to it after the webinar.

	Next slide. Now the part of the Bureau that I work in is called Consumer Education Engagement. And as it says here on the slide, what we try to do is we develop and implement initiatives that educate and empower consumers to make better informed financial decisions.

	And so these are the other parts of the CFPB here, highlighted in this slide. But really the part that I'm going to really focus on today is CEE, as we often call it.

	And I'm going to talk a little bit about consumer response, too, because that's very important if you've got veterans who need help if they have a problem with a financial product or service and how they can access our consumer response function.

	Next slide, please. Okay. So CEE, as we call it internally, our consumer education engagement, we serve the general public but we also have the special population offices.

	And myself, I'm part of the Office of Service Member Affairs. So we work to do education and engagement empowerment for the military population, which includes those in uniform, their family members and those who have served previously.

	But we also have a number of other special population offices that focus on groups like the older American population, the underserved and economically vulnerable population and a few others, including, as you all well know, our college age population and even our youth in the K through 12 arena.

	So next slide, please. So I know this is a group I'm speaking to that knows quite a bit about the college aged population. So I apologize if any of this is redundant or repetitive that you've heard it or seen it before. But I think it's worth highlighting just to sort of provide some context about some of the challenges that college students, including veterans, are facing as they transition from military service to college life.

	So next slide. And this is probably not new to you but college financial planning isn't really happening. This is based on a couple of studies that are referenced here in the footnotes.

	But, you know, people are not saving for college. A large portion of students have student loans and there's been a decrease in scholarship money as you can see by the numbers that are reported.

	Next slide. So in addition to the fact that people aren't saving enough money, there's not enough money to be saved because the young adults are struggling to meet their financial obligations as demonstrated by some of the data points here.

	So this is kind of a recipe, you know, for what happens in the next slide a little bit, which is we have quite a bit - a large increase in the number of students that are taking out student loans now.

	So next slide. And I can refer back to my days as a college student. I did not know the difference between a federal and a private student loan back in the day and it's many, many days ago now.

	But this continues to be a problem in the student age population along with a few other things which is that a lot of students based on the study here that was done in 2015 didn't really know about student loans and they would probably have changed their - made different decisions had they known more.

	So that demonstrates to us at least, the CFPB, that there is a demonstrable need for financial education of this population.

	So next slide. And this to demonstrate sort of what's become an outcome of this now is that student loan debt is now the second highest category of household debt. Obviously it is dwarfed significantly by mortgage debt.

	But just, you've got to remember, not too far into the past was student loan debt beneath auto loan debt and I believe credit card debt as a composition of household debt.

	So it's really exploded in probably recent past times. And so it's now become quite a burden on our young people in this society.

	Next slide. And there's just sort of the numbers for you to talk about the total actual and outstanding number of student loan debt. It's now in the $1.5 trillion range.

	Next slide. And this is what the - this is ultimately what student loan debt has an impact on, what we call here the domino effect. You know, it affects a student's ability to make choices with regard to homeownership, to save for their future and retirement, to build wealth over time.

	And it even impacts their ability to make career choices or whether or not they think they're financially ready to form a household by getting married or having children. So there's a very significant impact on all of us.

	Next slide. So I think its good maybe to transition to a little bit of data that we have at the CFPB. And what you're seeing before you here is a chart that is drawn from our annual report from 2017. And this is showing the types of student loan complaints that we received at the CFPB.

	In 2017 we received about 20,000 student loan complaints and about 87% of those were sent for review and response. And I'm going to talk a little bit later about how we review and respond to those complaints.

	About 9% of those complaints were referred to other regulatory bodies and about 4% were found to be incomplete so we were unable to respond to them. But this gives you the flavor for what students are telling us when they submit a complaint about a student loan.

	And you can see the top category - far and away the top category is problems dealing with their lender or the servicer of their student loan.

	So next slide. So I'm going to transition a little bit now to the tools and resources that we offer at the Bureau for the veteran population and really all population out there.

	Next slide. Our number one tool, and I really would call this our flagship product, is our paying for college tool. Now, as a lot of you know, veterans get access to the GI Bill or almost veterans do, assuming they meet the minimum amount of service time.

	But sometimes the GI Bill is not enough for fund their education, especially if they happen to have families and they have other expenses to pay during their time in college, often the GI bill isn't enough necessarily.

	So a lot of veterans also undertake or start to take on student loan debt. So paying for college, you know, I'm sorry - paying for college tools, like a set of tools or a suit of tools that's targeted to students that helps them evaluate their options when they're financing a higher education, and it really allows them to address the entire lifecycle of finance in college. Everything from comparing college costs to financial aid offers to shopping for a loan and then assessing options to how to repay their student loan debt.

	Next slide. We also have what we called a resource portal focused on student loans. And so this is in addition to the paying for college tool.

	And so this is really to help people understand things like figuring out how much they need to borrow, what types of grants and scholarships apply or don't apply, how to find out how to balance out your students loans, how to determine how much you can afford to pay for example, understanding, you know, what are your choices when it comes to refinancing versus consolidating your student loans.

	And then if you need to make a student loan change to your student repayment plant, this resource portal teaches you how to do that as well.

	Next slide. So what you're seeing here is a screenshot from this particular tool that shows some of the key questions that we recommend prospective students ask before they sign a student loan contract so just to give you an idea of the type of information, what it looks like on our Web site and what's available.

	Next slide. And then this is a screenshot from our paying for college comparison tool. And what's really useful about this is that this is an interactive tool.

	So you tell us the name of the school that you're thinking about considering going to and we provide information about that school. Things, like, what does it cost to go there? What is the average living expenses associated with that school?

	And then you see at the bottom of this slide, there is a category called money for school. And what's really nice about that for the veteran population is integrated into that tool is a link to say, hey, I'm a veteran and I have a GI bill here.

	And so we import that GI bill information as well to help a veteran get a much clearer site picture as to what their expenses are going to be and all their total expenses and also what expenses are not necessarily going to be covered by their GI Bill entitlement.

	Next slide. And this is another screenshot. It helps teach users about, you know, what is the difference between a federal loan, a private loan. Again, as we talked about, you know, most students don't really know this when they're taking out the loans, myself included when I was a student.

	So the idea here is to get them more familiar with understanding the terms and the knowledge and the phrases, like, a private loan versus a Stafford loan versus, you know, what does it mean to have a loan in repayment? What does it mean to have a deferment on your student loan for example?

	Next slide. Another tool that we're going to talk about are resources for public service workers. So we've got a bunch of different guides that are focused on different populations of people in the workforce.

	So if you are in the military, for example, you quality for public loan forgiveness. And it also applies to a bunch of other categories. And so the Bureau has put together these special guides really targeted to specific audiences such as the military, such as the Peace Corps, such as AmeriCorps such as teachers because as the slide points out, about 25% of the labor force works in the public service.

	So there's good options for folks out there to help get assistance for their student loans, but there's a lot of process involved and it's very important to get that process done right or you may not be able to get the loan forgiveness that you are seeking.

	Next slide. Okay. So one of the last things I'll talk about here - or, well, I got one or two more slides -- is our Ask CFPB portal. And so this is our number one tool overall on the CFPB Web site. We've had about 20 million visitors since we've launched this.

	And so this is kind of like an online knowledge base. Like, you know, you go to this Web site and if you have a question on sort of any financial product or service, chances are we have a category.

	We've looked at it. We've received this question whether it's a credit card issue, a student loan issue, a credit report issue, a debt collection issue, what have you.

	The point here is that it's all out there and available to people to utilize. And it's all credible information that's been put together and thoroughly vetted by the CFPB so that you can rely on it. We want people to know they can rely on this information when they use it.

	Next slide. And we would be remiss if we didn't talk a little bit about some of the publications we have. You know, we have a lot of great resources and tools on our Web site.

	But at the same time for those of you who work with students, even though students generally are more along the younger population, we know that oftentimes you want to be able to provide them something to put in their hands in front of them if you're meeting with them.

	And so we've got literally hundreds of publications in English and many other languages that focus on specific topics. So if you want to get topics that are devoted, you know, to things like student loans and understanding student loans, we've got brochures on that.

	And the nice thing about it is there's a Web site here at the bottom. You can go to our Web site there that we have bottom. You get to see our entire catalog. And you literally just look at what brochures you want.

	With a couple of keystrokes you drop them in a cart just like you would shopping on Amazon and say, hey, I want all these brochures delivered to my school. And, you know, you hit click.

	And it's pretty much as seamless as Amazon with one caveat is there's no one day shipping here. So it is run by the government printing office and unfortunately shipping is not quite as efficient as Amazon. But I will tell you, it usually gets to you within one to two weeks.

	All right. I've only got a few minutes left here. I'm probably even over my time. But I just want to let people know, if you do have a veteran who is having a problem with a financial product or service, this is how they get help.

	So next slide. I mentioned earlier Office of Consumer Response. This is who receives complaints at the CFPB and this is who manages that process. As you can see, they handle a lot of complaints, 20,000 telephone calls a month, 25,000 complaints per month. It's a well-run, well-oiled machine in terms of handling complaints.

	Next slide. And so this is why submitting a complaint is useful. The person who submits a complaint can get individual help but also every complaint we get helps us understand if there are problems in the marketplace.

	And so it's a win-win situation if someone submits a complaint to us because they're getting help individually and then it's also helping us make sure that there's not a sort of problem lurking in the marketplace that we're unaware of.

	Because at the end of the day, we are a regulator of the marketplace and our job it to kind of look out and protect consumers and make sure that there is a fair marketplace being put into effect.

	Next slide. So this is how you reach us. If you need to submit a complaint, we have a telephone number toll free. It's listed on our Web site there, 855-411-CFPB or 2372. And then you can also just submit a complaint at our Web site at that Web address.

	Next slide. And so when you - and when somebody does submit a complaint, this is basically the process how it works. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty because of time constraints.

	But essentially somebody submits a complaint. We work through and review it. We get a response back usually from the company that the complaint is about. And then we try and get - we send that back to the consumer to let them know. Here is your response and let us know if you have any feedback on that.

	So my time - I've gone over my time. I apologize to my next presenter Kim on that. But if people do have any questions, further questions about the CFPB's processes as well as in any resources or questions about connecting with the military community or working with veterans, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

	This is the best way to reach us here. That's our organizational email account that's monitored all the time and we will be happy to get back to you.

	So with that being said, I'm going to turn it over to Kim Myers from the Department of Defense. Sorry, Kim, I cut into your time for a little bit.

Kim Myers:	That is not a problem at all. And it's incredible information that they need to have on hand so I certainly don't mind. So I will just curb mine slightly to make sure that we stay on track for everybody else.

	So a special thank you to the CFPB for inviting us to participate in this webinar today and be able to share some information and resources that our office is able to provide to you.

	I'm Kim Myers. I'm a program analyst in the Office of Financial Readiness and I oversee our strategic communications efforts to resource service members and families on important financial education and literacy topics. So it could be resources. It could be law changes. It could be policy, any number of things.

	But our office does develop policy to support financial readiness and perform oversight on financial readiness efforts. And, of course, that's in conjunction with our military service department.

	We do advocate for the DoD on the basis of financial readiness and the literacy of our service members and families.

	And then we try to deliver innovative education resources. And some of that I'll share with you today. And we definitely love to collaborate with our other federal partners such as the CFPB, the SEC, the Federal Trade Commission and others to make sure that we're providing well-rounded educational tools and resources to everyone.

	And then we support the delivery of the financial readiness programs through the military services however we possibly can and look at look at new technologies to do that.

	Next slide, please. Great. So I want to talk a little bit about some of the resources that we have available that your service population may be able to access.

	The first is our personal financial managers and counselors. These are certified financial counselors that are located across the United States and overseas at military installations that can provide financial education counseling, the one on one or maybe even for a family or potentially in a group or workshop setting.

	If a service member is in your setting, your classroom, wherever the case may be and you notice that they're looking for some assistance in that way, the Web site listed there through militaryonesource.mil can point them in the right direction of identifying a personal financial manager or counselor nearest to them.

	Now some of these counselors will provide support and service virtually so it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be able to be on a military installation to receive that support.

	Now the services available to our active duty, National Guard and Reserve services, it is available to our veterans within the first 180 days of their separation date and then, of course, to our surviving spouses. We provide that service as well.

	They provide individual consultations and workshops as I've mentioned. And then also another resource that would be available either virtually or on a military installation is the use of educational counselors.

	Now each service branch does tend to run their voluntary education program slightly different. And so we've provided the resource there as well through Military OneSource so that you can locate an education program near you and speak to someone.

	And they'll talk to them a little bit about, or actually a lot, about guidance on how to access education, find an educational institution that will fit their needs and how to pay for that education, whether it's through tuition assistance, utilizing their GI Bill and other resources that will help them look at what they're eligible for.

	Next slide, please. Another benefit that is available to some veterans that recently came out was the 0% student loan benefit. This is an interest relief program that applies to direct loans or a portion of a direct consolidated loan.

	It is determined, or eligibility rather is determined based on the service member's status and where they were deployed and if they were in a hostile fire or imminent danger setting.

	Now the way a service member would identify if this applies to them is looking at their leave and earning statement or their military orders that show if they were in a service area that is considered hostile or under imminent danger.

	If that information is unavailable because the service member has not been in the service or has not been activated in quite some time, they can show proof of that by looking through their military records and having someone provide a certified letter and signature stating that they were, in fact, in those locations.

	Now the service member will need to contact their student loan servicing provider to be able to determine their eligibility and apply for this reimbursement or deferment of the interest rate.

	And there will be certain documentation that they will need to be able to provide such as that statement, the leave and earning statement or a copy of the military order showing that they were in fact in a hostile fire or imminent danger area.

	Now there's some information on this program available to service members. It's a fantastic handout here that I've listed through the Education Department on studentaid.ed.gov.

	But also the CFPB pointed out several resources that provides a lot of benefits available to service members as well. So you have a couple of resources there that you can access to help with that.

	Next slide, please. Another area that we've really been focused on in speaking with our service members and families as of late and actually still going on is the recent changes in the tax laws that may impact them.

	Now by and far there were not a huge number of laws that will apply but there are some. And it's important that our service members are aware of this.

	Specifically I wanted to point out because you may be working with populations that are in the Reserve component. It could be National Guard or Reserve. And they may have seen that moving expenses are no longer allowed as an exemption under their taxes.

	However, this does not apply to the members of the U.S. Armed Forces that are being called to active duty. So it's important that they realize that because that could sometimes be a little bit of a financial burden. And we certainly don't want them to feel like they are carrying the cost of something that they don't necessarily need to be responsible for.

	There's also a change in the tax law that allows service members that have served in the Sinai Peninsula to be claiming that as service in a combat zone. And that is retroactive. So for folks that maybe you have encounters with to be aware that is retroactive back to June of 2015.

	Now a lot of this is very legally based. And so we do encourage our service members to speak to a legal representative. And that is also a no cost service available to them at military installations. And I have provided there for you a link so that a service member can find their nearest legal assistance office to support them.

	There are also other resources that I want to make sure I point out that support service members as they're looking at their taxes. And one of those is the volunteer income tax assistance site.

	These are volunteer run sites that have trained personnel to assist service members and families as they are filing their taxes. We have provided a resource there for you through Military OneSource to locate a VIDA site that would be near or on a military installation nearby.

	Now the IRS also does have VIDA sites listed on their Web site that would be off military installations or worldwide. So you may want to check that out as well.

	The other thing I want to mention is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act booklet that our office has created. And this does highlight some of the major changes to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The issue link that you see listed there provides a digital booklet that a service member can access.

	And what we've tried to do is really highlight some of the major changes but then show how these might apply to a service member's particular situation. Sometimes when you have that persona if you will that they can relate to and identify with that that's somewhat similar to their personal situation it helps them understand how a change or a law may apply to them.

	We also want to make sure that we're mentioning the Armed Forces Tax Guide that's also available on the IRS Web site. There is some great information in there that also links out to a couple of other changes that have recently taken place that I just want to make mention of and that is the Veterans Benefit and Transition Act because this does apply and will impact service member's taxes. Actually it will impact the taxes because of the military service member's spouse.

	The Veteran's Benefits and Transition Act does allow military spouses to file in the state under their service member state of residency if they so choose to do so. This certainly can make things a little bit more streamlined and easier when they're filing taxes, especially if you're filing a joint recurring.

	So that is something to certainly look into. And then, of course, there is some states where there is no state tax. So in some cases it could be financially beneficial for the military family to utilize this option.

	Then also under the Veterans Tax Fairness Act there are veterans who may have paid taxes on disability severance pay. And in certain circumstances that disability pay is no longer taxable.

	So it's important for service members that you may be encountering that do receive disability pay check into the Veterans Tax and Fairness Act and see if they are eligible to apply for reimbursement or just to be aware and ensure that they aren't paying tax on any of that severance pay in the future if that happens to occur.

	The next slide, please. It talks a little bit about the new military retirement system. I'm not going to go into a huge overview of it simply because it is quite large. And all service members, if they were eligible to opt into the blended retirement system have already received training on that.

	But within the blended retirement system there are a couple of things I want to make sure that I point out to you, one of those being that all service members are entitled to continuation pay between their 8th year and 12th year of military service.

	Now when they receive that pay is dependent upon how the military service branch has set that up. And that is at their discretion. But this does allow for a service member to receive a nominal amount of money based on their career field and their years in service that they may need to make a financial decision on.

	That's where these personal financial managers and counselors will really come into play and be able to help support service members is when they're looking at this kind of funding.

	Perhaps it would be to fund education. It could be to pay off debt. It could be for a number of things. But to look at their options, tax implications and things of that nature that may impact them is very important.

	Another point that I want to make is the lump sum payment that is also an option to service members when they are retiring under the blended retirement system.

	The lump sum option gives service members the opportunity to elect to take a payment or a one-time lump sum of their future retirement dollars. So essentially they would take a discounted rate of their retirement pay in exchange for a lump sum that they would receive upfront whenever they retired.

	And that could be in the amount of 25% to 50%. So when you're talking about a service member that has 20 plus years or more of military service and they're retiring and you're looking cumulatively at what their earnings would be for their lifetime and they take 25% to 50% of that that's a good sum of money as well that also may have tax implications and just need some guidance and thought put into whether or not that is the best financial option for them based on their personal goals and the direction they want to head in retirement.

	So, of course, we do have resources to support service members as well as they are looking at retirement and planning financially for retirement and one of those is also another digital publication on the blended retirement system that provides a little bit more in-depth and detailed information on all of the different components. So that is a good resource that you can certainly reference folks to as well.

	So then the other resource that I want to make sure that I mention is the military compensation Web site. And under that Web site there is a header for the Uniform Services Blended Retirement System.

	On this site you'll find all kinds of policy and educational tools and resources as well as links to our online educational components and a calculator that will help them determine and look at the lump sum payout option. So a lot of tools there on that Web site as well.

	Now service members are looking at retirement and you can go on to the next slide, please. We work with the Department of Defense Transition Veterans Program Office.

	So while this program does not fall under the wheelhouse of the Office of Financial Readiness, we are certainly well versed and well aware of it because, as everyone knows, when somebody does transition from the military, there are financial implications.

	And so the Transition Assistance Program has created curriculum that aims to help service members understand and plan for the changes that will impact them during the transition in the form of their personal finances.

	So they offer a lot of curriculum. It's a week long course that they can take at the military installation and a portion of that is very targeted and focused on financial planning.

	So some of those topics include short-term and long-term goal setting based on an understanding of their current financial situation.

	They're also going to talk about their income. And they're going to evaluate what their current financial and salary information is so that they can better determine what kind of salary requirements they may need in post-transition.

	And this will be really important as service members are looking at potentially creating an education plan as well for post-transition since not all service members necessarily attend school while they're on active duty.

	So this will be very important for them to look at and evaluate in conjunction with their education plan as well.

	They're going to look at debts and really evaluate what their current total debt is and the effect that it may on them as they move into retirement or their next career but also afford them the opportunity to meet with personal financial managers and counselors to set up maybe a debt repayment plan to help them pay down any personal debt that they may have incurred and get themselves set up on a better path for planning for the future.

	And then they're also going to talk about savings and assets and how to identify what their net worth is because there are a lot of different types of retirement assets and options available, especially post transition.

	Some of those things may include looking at retirement plans. Under the previous retirement system, which we call the legacy retirement system, it's pretty cut and dried what a service member would receive in retirement as far as their pay.

	But under the new retirement system and then also moving into a civilian job where perhaps you may have someone that's 38 to 40 years old, they may be looking at a second retirement and understanding 401(k)'s and different retirement options will be very important for them at that point in time.

	Now all of this information, because it's a lot, and I've just kind of hit some of their key learning objectives within the transition assistance program, but there is a participant guide available that goes into more detail on all of this as far as the financial planning for their transition.

	You'll see the link there listed on the Web site and it is downloadable. And I would encourage you to maybe even take a look at that and share that resource with your service members that may be in your classroom setting.

	And then I'll transition to my last slide here. And it's just mentioning some additional resources. As I mentioned, our office does collaborate very heavily with a lot of other federal agencies.

	And within the Department of Defense there is the military community and family policy. And they have a huge program and oversight of a program called Military OneSource. So if you have not been to this Web site, it's phenomenal and is a wealth of information for service members and family.

	There is a public facing side that you can certainly access. There are resources available to service members and families that do require a login and validation that they are, in fact, a registered in (DEERS) or the Defense system for validating service member affiliation.

	And so Military OneSource is a 24/7 Web site that offers information, answers and support through a plethora of family life program resources. They also have individual consultations and coaching available for service members and families. And they also provide personal financial counselors to service members as well.

	And it's a little bit different than the program that we run in our office, where the personal financial counselors are available at the military installation. The services that are available through Military OneSource can also be offered virtually. But they have also worked with personal financial counselors in the local community to be able to provide a no cost service to service members and families.

	So just because a service member isn't located near a military installation, there are avenues throughout the DoD that afford them an opportunity to receive the service where they're at and meet them where they are.

	Another resource the Military OneSource offers is non-medical counseling. We know that transition, that military life can be stressful and overwhelming at times. And we also know that personal finances can play a part in that stress and overwhelming feeling.

	The non-medical counseling is also a program that can be offered at no cost to military service members as well.

	And then Military OneSource also has another program that is a very robust tax service and it's called the (MIL) Tax Program and it allows service members and families to receive tax preparation at no cost. And that is available through the Military OneSource Program as well.

	They can also (unintelligible) at the VIDA offices if they prefer to go somewhere in person. But we do know that in this day and age a lot of people are self-sufficient and like to do things online. And so that program is also available.

	And then another program that I want to mention that's specific for military spouses, it's called the Spouse Career and Education Opportunity.

	This program helps provide assistance to military spouses on finding employment. We know that military spouses have a difficult time as they transition from one location to another with their military spouse.

	And so this program has partnered with companies throughout the United States to afford military spouses an opportunity to pursue their careers as well.

	Another program office that we collaborate very heavily with is the Military Consumer Office. And they are part of the Federal Trade Commission. And they are a joint initiative to empower service members, active duty, Reserve component and retired and their families with resources as a first line defense against fraud.

	They do provide scam alerts and they also provide an avenue for service members and families and the general public as well to report scams.

	We interface with them very heavily coming in the month of July through their military consumer awareness month where we'll provide a lot of information, resources and outreach to service members and families on military consumer protection.

	Also you'll see another issue link where we have compiled a booklet that talks about military consumer protection which includes the Service members Civil Relief Act as well as the Military Lending Act which offers specialized servicing and protecting service members and families.

	And then another program I want to mention specifically for you all as our service providers is the Military Family Learning Network. This is a program that provides continuing education credit for those that if you are potentially a certified financial counselor or have some sort of accreditation provides some in-depth and higher level financial education training so that as you are working with service members or families in that provider role you have some additional tools that you might be able to utilize.

	And then I did, of course, mention the CFPB on this slide because we greatly appreciate the collaboration efforts and work that we are able to do with them and not to reiterate but to (foot stamp) their wealth of resources that are available on their Web site as service members are looking at financing education. So I certainly want to put (foot stamp) that as well. 

	So then I know - and you can go to the slide. I believe it says questions, but I know that the questions are being held to the end. But I do want to make sure that you are all aware that we do have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. And we've also just recently launched our own blog series on (Medium) and the handle is still the same, DoD (FINRED). So I would certainly encourage you to check all of those out for any upcoming events and engagements that we have.

	And I look forward to the end of the presentation where we're able to maybe answer some of your questions and point you in the right direction to further support our service members and family.

	So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Daniel Avegalio to speak to you next. So thank you all for your time.

Daniel Avegalio:	Thank you, Kim. And good afternoon, everyone. Kim and Tony, thank you so much for all that good information. Hi, everyone. My name is Daniel Avegalio. I am the Director of Student Services at Sierra College, which is located right outside of Sacramento here in California.

	I'm a Marine Corps veteran myself. I served five years in the Marine Corps from 2004 to 2009 and actually deployed three times to Iraq. I was a community college student myself here once I transitioned out of the Marine Corps.

	So definitely now as a college administrator I'm kind of boots on ground kind of dealing with all the vets here in the State of California as one of the advocates here in California.

	Next slide, please. A couple things I'm going to talk about today is how our California community college system works. So transitional issues that we've seen here in California facing veterans that many of you are probably seeing at your local community colleges, GI Bills, the stressors, the importance of Veterans Resource Centers and also some resources that you can use.

	Next slide. So there are 114 California community colleges. We're about to have another college added on as our distance college for online courses. We have 1.8 million veterans residing in California, the largest in the country.

	And back in 2016 we had 89,000 veterans, active duty reservists and dependents attending the California community colleges.

	Just so you guys know, the way that it works here in California, all of our community colleges are divided into regions. And there are 10 regions in California. And each region actually has a representative representing those regions.

	And I'm the regional rep for Region 2 which is Northern California and I have about 10 colleges underneath me that I provide support to as a regional rep.

	There is a Veterans Advisory Committee that's set up for the California College's Chancellor's Office. We do meet regularly to kind of discuss some issues that are being brought up in the state amongst our colleges.

	So it's kind of a way for us to kind of communicate and collaborate to kind of share ideas on how to better support veterans that are entering into our system and their families as well.

	Next slide. Of course, you guys may be aware, there's the GI Bill. You know, there's five different chapters of benefits. I won't go into them there. But Chapter 33, which is the post-911 GI Bill is the main GI Bill that the veterans use as they're exiting out of the military and transitioning in.

	And it's actually their main source of income. Many of them, when they get out, they're basically starting over. So when they're coming to school, unless they got a good program as far as separation goes, attending their (TAPS) courses or whatnot, each branch has their different name for the separation courses and classes that they offer.

	And you've got realize, too, that when it comes to GI Bill, they're limited to 36 months of benefits. So having the type of support that Tony and Kim mentioned is key and vital because many of our vets are going to have to use those benefits wisely as they're navigating our system, especially if they want to transfer to a four year university.

	It's important they kind of realize that, hey, you have 36 months only so you've got to utilize those benefits wisely and whatever goal that you are wanting to achieve whether it be career-wise getting an AAS degree, a certificate program completed or transferring to a four year to move on.

	So it's kind of important to kind of help them realize that as they're coming to the colleges and realizing they have limitations on their benefits.

	Next slide. Transitioning issues. Transitioning itself can be difficult. When I got out of the military after five years in, I was stationed in North Carolina. I'm from California. When I moved back, you know, just trying to navigate the system was kind of hard for me.

	And back when I got out in 2009, the post-911 GI Bill just came out. So whenever they're entering into our system, especially at the community colleges, you know, they have to deal with the process of entering into the college, but also dealing with the process of dealing with VA.

	There are policies in place that we have to follow as a college to actually certify the students for their benefits. So it's important to kind of realize that, hey, these are rules behind using your benefits. And it's important to have a point of contact on campus that they can realize that they can support from.

	Budgeting is huge. You know, getting out. Again, I mentioned them starting over. A lot of them need that financial literacy piece, especially how to properly use their GI Bill benefits and the benefits are included in that with the monthly housing allowance and whatnot.

	And then navigating the community college, as I already mentioned, can be a difficult task as far as trying to figure out what they want to do in their careers and whatnot.

	Being a civilian, you know, I always mention this whenever I present, you know, in the military we have identity of who we are. We're so structured. We can tell by looking at the collar of somebody or at their chest what rank they are and how to address them.

	You know, I was a Marine. I addressed myself as a Marine. But when we entering out of the military, we have to kind of figure out what our new identity is going to be.

	And as a college, we're supposed to help guide them through that and kind of figure out what their next identity will be. So it's kind of important to kind of realize that we play a major role in that in helping them discover their new selves as their new identity as they're entering into the civilian world.

	And like I said that turns to looking for a purpose. You know, a lot of them don't know what they want to do sometimes. Some of them don't have a plan. All they know is that they have a GI Bill that they can use when they're getting out.

	And, again, when they meet with the counselor, it's key for that counselor to realize that, hey, we need to navigate them right. And that 36 months comes into play, especially if they're using the benefits and it's their main source of income.

	Next slide, please. Stressors of starting over. If you're enlisted, you do start over after you get out. Five years in, I lost my health care. The only main source of income was my GI Bill when I got out.

	I didn't really have a plan when I got out. And this is what I see many times with many of our veterans getting out.

	You know, family life, we do have a lot of vets that have kids and are married. And we do also have a lot of our woman veterans transitioning out who are single parents. So as a college, we have to be prepared for all that.

	Financial obligations. I already mentioned about no career or educational goals, no health insurance and lack of support.

	So I've been to many colleges in California. I visited a lot being the regional rep. I've been one of the main advocates in the state. And in a lot of cases, a lot of colleges are not prepared to actually serve veterans.

	They do not have VRC. They may have one representative as a VA certified official, but that person is not trained to actually deal with a lot of the transitional issues with mental health, with financial issues connecting veterans with resources when they're getting out of the military at that college.

	So it's important to kind of realize that if you are going to serve veterans, you need to provide that support for them.

	And then next slide, please. And the Veteran Resource Centers. Currently in my program here, Sierra serves about 700 veterans. At the previous college I was at, we served about 1,300.

	At both colleges we were one stop shops with all of our services located in one area with us having MOUs with the VA, providing mental health, with vocational rehab, with a lot of our community partners in place that kind of have MOUs with.

	And that's what you need to have. You know, you need to have your certified officials in place in the center, having your own veteran's counselors, which I have here at Sierra College. I have two veteran's counselors in place.

	And having those wraparound services. You know, they need to be prepared and trained, and all of your staff needs to be prepared and trained, on actually how to serve veterans when they're in crisis, all the resources and whatnot.

	I do at least five workshops a semester aimed at faculty and staff and also to the student veterans themselves. So it's important - and this is where financial literacy, you can bring in that financial literacy piece in, I do hold workshops on financial literacy. And I do have a person that I bring in to do those workshops.

	VA home loans, mental health, suicide prevention for faculty and staff, those are all key points that you want to bring into the college because when you're talking about changing the campus culture and making them more aware of veterans, you need to blast it out there and make sure that the campus is well versed of the transitional issues that veterans face when they're transitioning out.

	And that includes instructional faculty. They need to be prepared and know that there's someone on campus that they can turn to for resources and help if they see one of their veteran students in need. And that's where the VRC's, Veteran Resource Centers, come into play and so it's important to have that.

	Some other partners are right there. I know I'm running out of time right now. But I do want to, you know, answer any questions that anyone. But these are some of our off campus resources that we have MOUs with. We even have a service class that we offer veterans that is covered by a nonprofit that we work with.

	Next slide. Talking about resources, community collaboration, mental health. We did partner up with the Vet Centers, some nonprofits, like the Soldiers Project and the VA. You know, Department of Veterans Affairs, it's important to understand the different branches of the VA, you know, that we have a Veterans Health Administration, the Veterans Benefits Administration and then the National Cemetery. All three different entities that deal with different things involving VA. So it's key for colleges for know the difference between those three.

	And then knowing in your states that you're at the difference between the county benefits, the state benefits and federal benefits for veterans. There is a difference between all three. So if you're going to be working with veterans it's important to know what those differences are in your state because each state is different in how they offer benefits except for on the federal level.

	So make sure you're in tune to what your state offers as far as county and state benefits so that way you can share that with your veterans when they're coming in to see you.

	And I did partner up here in Sacramento with the Sacramento Kings and other sporting teams and serving on their Veterans Advisory Committees so that way we can promote games to our veterans to attend with their families. That way they're getting that type of support there.

	And then I wanted to touch key on this because herein California we just recently got state funded by the State of California for money. So back in about two years I helped organize Operation Vets and their funding.

	And we actually had multiple colleges throughout the State of California come to Sacramento at the State Capitol and actually met with every single legislator there promoting and asking for funding to help support our Veteran Resource Centers.

	And they did give us funding. We received $5 million this year and last year we received $5 million as well and that was divided based off the number of veterans and dependents certified at your college for benefits.

	So each college now in the State of California is receiving some type of funding now from the state. And that helps support our VRCs. There are rules behind that. I won't get into detail about that. But if you get questions about that, please reach out to me on that. But each school now is receiving a certain amount of money from the state to help support our programs here in California.

	Veterans emergency funding, I work with Wells Fargo and they donated over 100 grand to our programs that provide strictly veterans only emergency funding so the vets in need.

	For example, if there's a delay in getting benefits for a veteran, we can provide that emergency funding for them to help purchase their books or provide that monthly housing allowance if they don't have it in place yet to help provide that.

	And there's always emergencies that come up in life so we want to make sure that we are able to provide that emergency funding there to help support them.

	And it's important to also create a foundation account for your veteran resource center. You know, I work with our foundation account.

	Each college has some type of foundation. I created a foundation account that I can actually promote out in the community and ask for folks to actually provide donations to that account so that way you can use those monies to help support your program.

	You know, if you're familiar with state funding or grant funding, there are limitations of what you can use the money for when it comes to that. But with a foundation account, you can actually use the money to help support events that you may have, especially providing scholarships.

	So if you haven't done that already, that's something you definitely should look into as creating that account and then promoting and letting people know what you plan on doing with that funding.

	Next slide. And that's pretty much all I have right now. I could talk about Veterans Resource Centers forever. And I've been working in higher ed for about nine years now but definitely been a major advocate here in the State of California and especially getting the state funding, which is key to our success.

	I want to throw it back to (Bukola and thank you so much for your time, everyone.

(Adebukola Dada):	Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone, for all of the information shared today. Before we open it up for questions, if you are wondering how you can get a copy of today's presentation, we will have it available on our Web site within a few weeks.

	So feel free to check our Web site. That is consumerfinance.gov. You can also contact us via email if you want to receive additional information about this presentation. Our email address is students@cfpb.gov.

	Now, I'll turn it over to the operator to open it up for questions for our speakers.

Coordinator:	Thank you. If you have a question, please press star followed by 1 on your touchtone to ask a question and record your name clearly when prompted. One moment please.

(Adebukola Dada):	Are we showing any questions, (Candy)?

Coordinator:	I'm showing no questions in queue at this time.

(Adebukola Dada):	Okay. Well, then thanks again to all of our speakers and thank you to all of the participants in today's webinar. This concludes today's webinar. Thank you all.

Coordinator:	That concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. All participants can now disconnect at this time. Speakers, please hang back for your post call. One moment, please.


END
NWX-CFPB HQ
Moderator: Heather Brown
3-21-19/2:00 pm CT
Confirmation #8398731
Page 36