From a public-spirited attorney in Washington, Peter Fels, who passes on this warning from a Spokane attorney, Dick Sayre.  No reason to think it stops North of the Columbia River.

Folks, the Attorney General is accepting complaints about VA scams which are spreading over Washington like a small plague.  They are working with the VA, who is not at all amused by these goings on.  Of particular interest to the AG are non lawyers selling insurance products and/or irrevocable trusts to disabled seniors with a purpose of shielding assets from VA so as to gain acceptance for Aid and Attendance benefits, but lawyers here and in other states taking part in the scams are also a target of their investigations.

As most of you know, VA does not have a lookback or penalty for gifting assets, making this what appears to be an easy sale for the annuity sellers, who charge for the 'service' and get commissions from the trusts and annuities.  That will likely change as a consequence of this practice.

As many of you know, clients are being talked into making gifts to children, who then either put the funds into an irrevocable trust or buy an annuity 'to keep the funds safe'.   They then apply for Aid and Attendance benefits but, of course, when they later need Medicaid, they are faced with a huge penalty period and extended ineligibility.  DSHS will deny eligibility or deem assets to be in a constructive trust; however, often the client cannot get them back - it's the worst of all worlds.

I have dealt with a number of these cases, and everyone ended badly for the clients.  Here in Spokane, the VA experts are approaching AFH's and nursing homes for presentations, and are being given a warm welcome given that the money goes to the facility.   When the next one of these goes bad, I'll be visiting with some of the litigators on this list about the forseeability of injury when the facility sets these creeps up as experts for financial gain.

The agents pass themselves off as VA experts and have business entities with snappy titles.  They make huge profits for advice and healthy commissions from crappy annuities sold to desperate people without any warning of the consequences of this approach.  As most of you also know, the VA helps people apply for A&A without cost.

If you have complaints, please direct them to Brooks Clemmons or file a complaint as set out below.  Here is contact information for Brooks:

brooksc@atg.wa.gov and (509) 456-3282 (direct line)

It would be helpful to the AG if people filed a complaint online at
www.atg.wa.gov as those complaints go straight into their bank of complaints and are coordinated with similar complaints.  The AG would like to find out if there are persons or families that have been approached or have been taken in as a consequence of these unethical and fraudulent practices.

In Brooks words:  It is our fervent desire to stop this practice and stop others from being harmed.

I have filed several complaints, and I know others have as well.   I've also created some havoc with annuity companies, but most won't budge absent litigation.  Meanwhile, the client is without services or money.   It is now reaching epidemic levels, and I ask you all to refer cases to the AG so we can prevent more people from being irreparably harmed.

Dick Sayre
Sayre & Sayre, PS
Spokane

   I found an old Salem Resources list with a number of useful listings.  As a first step towards updating it, I made a legible version of it (see file below).  Anyone knowing of newer or better information is invited to contact me with the updates so I can update the file.  Please feel free to direct others to this resource list and to suggest additional resources for people in need.

Another story pointing out how for-profit schools target prospective students more on the basis of ability to pay than on their ability to benefit from the for-profit school offers.  Hat-tip to Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine for story and graphic:

Online Colleges Target Veterans
GI benefit-rich veterans help Kaplan and other universities avoid federal financial aid rules

     Keith Melvin, a disabled and decorated Iraq War veteran, wanted to go to a traditional college until a recruiter for the online, for-profit Kaplan University began courting him. She assured him, he said, that he could trust Kaplan because it's owned by Washington Post Co. (WPO), and because the Post's board boasts such luminaries as Warren Buffett and Melinda Gates. "I was more familiar with Jimmy Buffett than I was with Warren Buffett," Melvin says.

     After learning the difference between the Sage of Omaha and the Sage of Margaritaville, Melvin enrolled at Kaplan last year. Invoking Buffett and Gates is one of many ways Kaplan attracts veterans—and the public funds used to pay their tuition. Federal spending on veterans' education will more than double this year, to $9.6 billion from $4.2 billion, says the U.S. Veterans Affairs Dept., largely because of a more generous GI Bill that took effect in August 2009. It pays veterans' tuition up to the level of their state's most expensive public university.

     Kaplan ranked third in 2009 in the number of students funded by veterans' benefits, behind two other for-profits, Apollo Group's (APOL) University of Phoenix and American Public Education's (APEI) American Public University System. Eight of the top 10 colleges were for-profits. "These schools are after the monetary gain of a healthy benefits package, not necessarily what's in the best interest of students," says Donald D. Overton Jr., executive director of Veterans of Modern Warfare, a service group with 5,000 post-1990 veterans as members. Kaplan spokeswoman Melissa Mack says: "Kaplan has received significant interest from veterans because of our military-friendly practices." She says recruiters aren't encouraged to use the names of Buffett and Gates.

     Enrolling veterans helps for-profit colleges exploit a loophole in a 1992 law capping the proportion of revenue they can derive from federal student aid at 90 percent. Tuition paid to for-profit colleges under the GI Bill counts as nongovernment revenue. Kaplan University, which derived 87.2 percent of its revenue in 2009 from taxpayer-funded education aid such as Pell Grants for poor students, may have exceeded 90 percent if revenue from the GI Bill and U.S. Defense Dept. tuition assistance for active-duty military was added, says Bradley Safalow, chief executive of PAA Research, which analyzes higher education stocks.

     U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, whose department is pushing tighter regulation of for-profit colleges, expressed concern in September that some schools may violate the spirit of the law, which was meant to ensure that they offer an education good enough that some students are willing to pay for it out of their own pockets. For-profit colleges should have "some skin in the game beyond our dollars," Duncan said.

     Veterans often don't complete degrees or land lucrative jobs after attending for-profit schools.  At Kaplan University, only 30 percent of two-year students and 33 percent of four-year students graduate. Spokesman Ron Iori says Kaplan's graduation rates are higher than many traditional schools that also serve a predominantly low-income student body like its own.

     Iraq vet Scot Reynolds, who earned a bachelor's degree in management from Kaplan University in 2009, now works as a telemarketer for $8 an hour plus commission—less than he made before he graduated. "My income has drastically dropped," he says. "Kaplan was extremely limited with help in finding work." Iori says Kaplan provides a wide array of job placement services.

     Kaplan, long known for preparing high school students for the SAT college admissions exam, derived 64 percent of its revenue in the quarter ended July 4 from its higher education division. The unit includes predominantly online Kaplan University, with 75,000 students, as well as Kaplan colleges, which have 37,000 students on 60 campuses.

     About 11,000 Kaplan University students, or 15 percent of its enrollment, are veterans, active-duty service members, or military spouses, up from 8,500 a year ago. The school targets the more than 1.2 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, who are eligible for richer benefits under the revised GI Bill, by advertising in military-related magazines such as Army Times and G.I. Jobs, exhibiting at job fairs for current and former service members, and sponsoring events held by Amvets, the country's fourth-largest veterans' organization. Veterans "can virtually go to Kaplan with no out-of-pocket expenses," Kay Houghton, Kaplan director of corporate alliances, said as she handed out brochures at the Amvets national convention in Louisville in August.

     The bottom line: Washington Post Co.'s for-profit college, Kaplan University, has used the prestige of its parent to attract veterans and their federal aid.

 John Gear is a MAP volunteer attorney.  If you are a service member, service family member, or know someone who is, you should know about the Oregon State Bar's Military Assistance Panel (MAP).

The Oregon State Bar’s Military Assistance Panel connects Oregon lawyers with Oregon’s deployed servicemembers and their dependents in need of legal help.

    Since 2003 the Oregon State Bar has been addressing legal concerns of Oregon soldiers deployed overseas.  Federal and state legislation provide additional legal protection to persons entering or called to active duty in the US armed forces. Information on the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and state laws protecting service men and women is available here.

    Although many military personnel and their families are aware of the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA), they may not have the legal expertise or financial resources available to take advantage of the Act’s important provisions. The Oregon State Bar administers a referral panel that lists lawyers willing to help. Our volunteer lawyers have been trained to provide legal assistance primarily relating to the SCRA. Many volunteers are also willing to assist with family law, consumer/credit law, real property/landlord-tenant law, and estate planning issues.

    Volunteer lawyers expect to give at least one hour of advice and counseling to a cli- ent free of charge. It is up to the lawyer and client to decide whether to continue the lawyer/client relationship beyond the pro bono consultation.

How It Works:

To participate, servicemembers –

        1. Contact the Oregon Army National Guard at (503) 584-3571 for an authorization (military reference or “MR”) number; and then,

        2. Contact the Oregon State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Service at (503) 684-3763 for a referral to a participating lawyer; and then,

        3. Contact the participating lawyer.

Forwarded by Kevin Secor, VSO Liaison, Office of the Secretary of the
Department of Veterans Affairs.
    An organization called Veterans Affairs Services (VAS) is providing benefit and general information on VA and gathering personal information on veterans. This organization is not affiliated with VA in any way.
    Websites with the name "vaservices" immediately after the "www" ARE NOT part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the US Government agency. Do not go to them or if approached or called, do not offer them any information concerning yourself or data on other veterans.
    Keep in mind that the real VA website ends in .gov. Also, be aware that the Department of Veterans Affairs does not randomly call veterans, nor does it ask veterans for information which it does not already have--like Social Security Numbers. In particular, if you have not dealt with the VA previously--and in person--and all of a sudden, you receive a call from someone saying they are with the VA or something similar sounding, hang up the phone. Also, do not respond to emails which suggest that they are from the VA. The VA never conducts official business nor asks for personal information by email.
    VAS may be gaining access to military personnel through their close resemblance to the VA name and seal. Our Legal Counsel has requested that we coordinate with DoD to inform military installations, particularly mobilization sites, of this group and their lack of affiliation or endorsement by VA to provide any services.
    In addition, The General Counsel requests that if you have any examples of VAS acts that violate chapter 59 of Title 38 United States Code, such as VAS employees assisting veterans in the preparation and presentation of claims for benefits, please pass any additional information to Mr.Daugherty at the address below.

        Michael G. Daugherty, Staff Attorney
        Department of Veterans Affairs,
        Office of General Counsel (022G2)
        810 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20420