VA benefits and pensions overview, Part 1

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is by Mr Jim Koewler, elder law and special needs attorney, helping and protecting those who need long term care. And welcome everyone to the answers for alders podcast radio network. And again, we have families out there right now that are having loved ones and they may have served in the military and, believe it or not, don’t overlook the fact that they’ve spent any time in the military, whether it’s during wartime or not. There may seem be some benefits available to the to you that you may want to think about in just look into. And so we’re very, very fortunate to have Mr Jim Taylor of the Kaylor law firm out of Ohio and he’s going to educate us on what you need to know if your loved one is a is a veteran of the military and Jim, welcome to the show and thank you so much for sharing this important I’m presentation with us. It’s extremitation, Suzanne. Appreciate it. Yes, you’re welcome, and the one thing I want to tell anyone that’s listening on a podcast, we are going to be launching this up not only on answers for elder’scom home page, but also up on our youtube channel. So there is a power point that Jim is showing and yes, you’re going to be able to follow along if you’re listening, so it’s not a problem. But one of the things that we found was we did a power point the last time and it really helped. We got a lot of positive feedback from it, so we’re excited to obviously have another one. And you did this presentation through the National Business Institute, did you not? Yes, yes, I’ve given it twice now and I may end up doing it some more in the future. Well, fabulous. Well, Jim, I’m going to give you the floor and other than an occasional question that I asked, I’m just going to be our little clock keeper. Every segment is going to be twelve minutes and then where we’re going to do is we’re going to take a quick break so that you can come back to part, the next part. So I’m you can listen to it in chunks and you won’t Miss Anything. So Jim, take it away. Thanks, Suzanne. Hey everybody. As Susian mentioned, I am using powerpoint slides. They do have the national businesses to logo on them because it’s my content, but they’re template because they during covid they went to a lot of webinars. I don’t think they do anything live currently, so they went to a template for the written materials and for their powerpoint slides. So that’s why the NBA logo. For those who are only listening and not looking, I’m a lawyer. This is words on a page. There’s no graphics, there’s no pictures, so you’re not missing a whole lot shot. If it helps you to see and here at the same time, then yeah, go look it up on the you do Youtube Channel. But if you can’t, don’t feel like you’re missing a whole lot here, because let’s for you. I’m a lawyer. I work in the abstract, so it’s just words on a page. So here we go. For NBI, my title was veterans benefits, claims and appeals under the current rules. So we will be talking about all those eventually, certainly not all in segment one, but they will all be in here at some point. Okay, that’s that’s the contact page for those who are looking how to reach me, and that’s Mike, my NBI email address. If you’re trying to reach me through answers for elders. Please use j Taylor, jkoewlar AFE like answers for elders at protecting seniorscom. Yes, I’m fussy about my emails. Let’s me figure out how people found me. Now. It’s not one of the big programs. But the first thing I want to explain to you is if you’re going to be trying to get veterans benefits, please work with someone who is accredited. Okay, a for those who are listening and not looking. Accredited, accreed IED. Okay, not credited, accredited. That is something where the Office of General Council at the Veterans Administration is actually now a department of Veterans Affairs, but still people called the va are reference. Administration approves people to help veterans with their benefits. You have to be approved, you have to take periodic continue education on it, either through legal education or there are non lawyer accredited agents. Okay, but anyone who’s talking to you about this with any level of the specificity beyond hey, you want to look into this should be accredited under their rules. Okay. So look for somebody WHO’s accredited. You can’t someone who is trying to help you or your loved one should not be doing it without this accreditation, except maybe once. Okay, if you’re helping, if you are helping your loved one, you have to be accredited. You go to help a second loved one, now you got a problem. Okay, so this is one off, no problem. More than one, you need accreditation. Yeah, it’s a pain in the butt. If you’re just doing this for loved ones, they’re probably look the other way, but don’t count on it. So, okay, just one question. Sure to having it an accredited person. How do you find them and what kind of individuals are they? Okay, there are both accredited agents and accredited attorneys. We come in through slightly different doors because attorneys already had to go through background checks and things like that with their states. Are So actually their state Supreme Court to get a license. So those steps are skipped over for attorneys. Just so as not to be redundant. You can look for accredited individuals through the Department of Veterans Affairs website. Okay, the URL is probably va do Gov, and then a whole bunch of things about this long exactly that you could just google. Department of Veterans Affairs. Would Google va and accredited and you may find the list on how to become accredited or you may fund the list of the Directory of people got it. I check mind periodically because I when I after renew mine, in fact I had the renewed mind. What is today? We’re taping on the eighteen everybody of February. Not that it matters, except my deadline to renew is three days ago. So I very familiar with this because I handled it four days ago. I got it send in my renewal papers. So look for people who are accredited. Now, if your state is like Ohio, well one. I’m sorry if your state is like Ohio, but in some ways that’s good. Ohio has what they call a Veterans Service Commission in each county. It’s something that actually they set up back I cameras during or immediately after the civil war. They knew veterans are going to be coming back to the civil war less face if we had a lot of veterans in the civil war, and so Ohio set this up. There is one each county and the job of these and then the commission is kind of an independent board. But then they have employees who work through the Commission and in Ohio these employees can doll out some county money for veterans things. But you know, other states may not have this, I don’t know. But they also help with getting veterans benefits for people. Okay, if you have something like that in your state. My suspicion is, and really strong suspicion, is that the people are helping with veterans benefits are accredited. They’ve gone through the trains and being gotten accredited. They file the papers and they redo it every year because it’s part of their job. Yeah, so if you don’t want to go find an independent agent to help you or an independent attorney to help you through accreditation, you can find somebody. If you have a similar corent kind of office in your state or county. Okay, and again in Ohio it’s the Veterans Service Commission. We’ve gotten and Summit County, while of Kyahoga where Cleveland is got one in every county. Okay, and like other every other county office, some of them are better fund than others, you know, depending on the size the tax base in the county that, the population, etc. Okay, but that’s a place to go look because that may be free help because they’re carrying plays. Okay. The other thing about a anyone helping with va benefits, if they’re helping you or anyone else apply for va benefits, there should not be a fee. Okay, they can charge your fee, as I can turn their service right for the service of the application itself. Okay, if I help someone find ways to spend money that makes sense for them and don’t violate the VA rules. But then get them down to define financial eligibility, and let’s talk about that, and I’m looking at the time. We won’t be talking about it that in this segment now, but we will be talking about that in a segment coming up here. If I can charge for helping them become financially eligible, I cannot charge to an application. God. Okay. So, no, it one who says, Oh, and we’ll do the application for free. That is anybody desert that for free? Okay, they have to. It is. They are throwing you something to try to get your attention. Okay. Well, we said are we have this charitable arm that will do these applications and then when they’re done, they ask you for a donation. Yeah, okay, yeah, that’s that’s all not to put to find out, pawn on it. Crap. Yeah, yeah, they can’t charge for that. If they do, as far as I’m concerned, you can turn them into the office General Council. I have no problem with that whatsoever. In fact I encourage you to do that. There’s a whole scam industry where people would do your application for free and as Oh, you got too much money. But, and this is pre rules that were changed in two thousand and eighteen. But the industry still trying to find its foothold again, you have too much money, but this purse, this friend of mine who sells annuities, can sell you a nudity that will make you eligible. So why don’t you go talk to her? But they’re related. They pay each other, okay. And and the next time she may be the free charitable person and I you know, and and the guy may be the nuity salesperson. Okay, right. So those are a big deal. They are taking advantage of seeing of a senior veterans and their loved ones and trying to see what they can skim off the top. Two thousand eighteen rule changes were in part a response to that. They to some extent throughout the baby with the bathwater, as often happens with federal rules. But that is a big deal. Okay, with the minute a half or so that we have left in this segment, I also want to talk about discharge papers. Okay, so if we’re talking about veterans, Yep, discharge proven that they are veterans is a big deal. Okay, so discharge papers are a big deal. If you do not have the original discharge papers, and many people don’t, they have a copy. Right. Originals are on onion skin and they may not have survived. Okay, you can get a replacement for something that is as good as an original and be a certified copy. Excuse me, but you have you get it from the Department of Defense, not the Va. Okay, while you were in the military you were not working for the Va, you were Non Department of Defense. Got It. So all the discharged papers and all the medical records, you will be talking about those in figure segments, who are held by the Department of fence, not the Va. So if innt you, if you have the original, I suggest to go get any way, to go get a copy of what the DOD has. Anyway. Yeah, warm SF like Sam Frank or Sierra Fox strat military Logan, the jargon Sierra Foxtrot one hundred and eight zero. You can find that on the Internet. You may be able to find a form that’s typeable as a pdf on the Internet and then you send that to the appropriate address. Usually the appropriate address is the central military personnel records depot in St Louis, Missouri, but there is probably a dozen other addresses, just depending on what your exact situation is, like merchant marine, for example. So right, marine is eligible for this. Okay, there are some civilians or some department of health personnel or Noah, the the weather people who are eligible in their records is going to be somewhere else. Okay, but if you’re dio, if your former military, you need to go get the military records, even if you have originals, and makes sense to go get and see what the vas going to be looking at. Okay. So you get it to form s F hunand zero and like every other federal form, it’s one page form with about three pages of instructions and then incred of addresses. Okay, yeah, yeah, and so we’re going to go into part two. Right after this state of Ohio residence. You have a friend to help you navigate long term care while protecting your assets. You can reach J M at wwwft Seniorscom or just email him at j Koewler afe. That’s J KAYLER AFE at Protecting Seniorscom