Financial challenges for service men and women

Senator Jon Tester, Attorney General Steve Bullock and Holly Petreaus of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau held a roundtable event at Fort Harrison on Tuesday to talk to service men and women about financial challenges they and their families face.

Petreaus is a lifetime military family member who works to protect members of the military from predatory lenders and financial scams. She says the younger military members have more financial problems because of managing money they receive when they join the military, or they have more debt coming out of school. She says teaching financial literacy and keeping a strict budget while on deployment would help service people in the long run.

“There's no doubt about it, we even see the wounded service members who come back.  They get a large amount of money from what's called traumatic serviced group members life insurance and for many of them that money-which can be as much as $100,000-is gone within a year and it's gone on things like cars and electronics,” says Holly Patreaus.

Attorney General Steve Bullock and Senator Jon Tester say communicating to other members of the military and reporting fraudulent activities can help educate both the consumer and business person. Bullock says his office can also assist in military finance concerns.

 “If you're scammed or schemed otherwise, this isn't something that just has to stay in the chain of command.  We have an office of consumer protection that covers all Montanans and we can do something to be able to both learn and also educate.  I think we all walk out in a better position,” says Attorney General, Steve Bullock.

Panel also took questions and comments from National Guard members.

Story by Jess Armstrong, Beartooth NBC.
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