Photo By Sgt. Ashley Phillips | A Military Saves Week brief was held at the Lasseter Theater aboard Marine Corps Air...... read more read more
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Marines attended the Military Saves Week brief held at the Lasseter Theater aboard Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, Feb. 28. There was a second brief held at the theater aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island as well.
Military Saves Week is a Department of Defense wide campaign that
encourages the education of service members and their families about the
importance of saving. The brief was held aboard both MCAS Beaufort and
MCRD Parris Island. Topics covered included, the Thrift Savings Plan, which is an aspect of the Blended Retirement System, and financial fraud.
“I think that in the next year service members will be making the biggest financial decision of their life thus far, regarding the BRS,” said Bob Bieri, the representative with Navy Mutual Aid Association. “There are so many great resources at your disposal to help you make this decision. That’s part of why Military Saves Week is so important this year specially.”
According to the Department of Defense military pay website, the Nation Defense Authorization Act has created a new military retirement system that blends the traditional legacy retirement pension with a defined
contribution to the TSP. Under the current High 3 legacy retirement system only 1 in 5 service members get government retirement benefits. With the BRS 85% of service members will get government retirement benefits. The biggest difference is that with the High 3 legacy retirement, a service member has to have served at least 20 years. The BRS provides a modernized retirement plan built to help service members save for retirement and available after completing two years of service.
“We want to make sure our military members are more involved with saving, investing, understanding their finances, and hopefully staying out
of debt,” John Spencer, the personal financial management specialist with
MCAS Beaufort. “Today the biggest topics are TSP, BRS, and making sure
they don’t fall prey to financial fraud.”
For the second half of the brief a representative from the office of the
Attorney General of South Carolina spoke about how the military community in particular can be targeted by fraud. The representative also explained the role of the securities division.
“The securities division is a resource for the public in South Carolina, we
encourage them before they invest to check the registration by calling our
office,” said Anna Rushton, the securities outreach coordinator, office of the Attorney General South Carolina. “We can provide them with the tools they need to make an informed decision. A lot of time our military members fall prey to fraud because they are viewed as a trusting community and people take advantage of that, such as affinity fraud.”
Affinity fraud is a scheme used to take advantage of the tight knit trust
amongst the military community by gaining the trust of one who will then
recruit others.
“The goal is that our service members will have the knowledge of resources available as well as know how to manage and save their finances for themselves, making informed decisions,” said Spencer. “They can go to work, focus on their mission without that added stressor of mismanaged finances. This also ensures that every Marine remains in the fight. When they have financial issues that take them out of work it hurts their entire team. We want to keep them in the fight and keep them educated.”
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2017 12:56 |
| Story ID: | 225606 |
| Location: | BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 121 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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