‘Master of their own fates’: Supporting veterans with specialist advice

Managing director of Veteran Wealth, Corey Stamp, told ifa that navigating the complex web of benefits and relevant legislation can make it difficult for holistic advisers to produce the best outcomes for veterans.

Drawing on his experiences following more than a decade in the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Stamp said veterans returning to civilian life often find themselves with large sums of money but lacking essential financial literacy skills, leading to poor financial outcomes.

“The military, the army especially, teaches you to go to war, but they don't teach you to come home, and one of the biggest issues with defence is that people will go on deployment and they'll get $80,000, they'll come home and buy a brand new ute and just waste their money,” Stamp said.

“I was seeing [this] happening with the permanent impairment (PI) stuff. I was seeing PI come through, guys were getting payouts of $400-500,000 and they would just blow it on absolutely anything they could find.

“Then two years later they come back, and they'd be like, ‘I need more money’, and I might be like, ‘you can't, you don't have any more money, the DVA [Department of Veteran Affairs] isn't there just to keep giving your money whenever you feel like it’.

“To me, it was more about the education and trying to teach guys that they've got to stop relying upon handouts and stuff like that. So, trying to educate them, giving them structure and giving them a strategy and letting them sort of be the master of their own fates.”

Stamp said due to how veteran benefits are structured and how the length and type of service impact what benefits veterans are eligible for, many holistic advisers struggle to operate effectively in this space.

“There are two different terminologies that we have … you've got veterans who have war-like service or qualifying service … they get administered differently than Centrelink or Services Australia,” he said.

“I think a lot of financial planners that sort of play in the space, or try and think they can play in the spaces of where I play, they sort of fall down a little bit because they don't understand what acts veterans fall under, and whether or not Centrelink or Services Australia applies to certain veterans.”

Regarding his motivation for specialising in veterans, Stamp said his work is his way of giving back to the veteran community and providing psychological support by helping them manage their finances.

“I do 70 hours a week, so I can't go out and volunteer time and stuff like that, but in this space, I feel that whether it's a PI or SRDP [Special Rate Disability Pension] or even normal advice for veterans, I feel that I'm helping, and that's all I care about,” he said.

“My goal is to make sure we don't have any more suicides. But that can't be quantified by what I do. So as long as I don't see it personally, as in from something that I've I've failed at, then to me, I feel like I've achieved what I want to achieve in that sense.”

Stamp noted that a considerable understanding of the MRCA, DRCA and SRCA, all of which are different forms of rehabilitation and compensation legislation relevant to veterans, is needed to navigate this space, however, most advisers are likely unaware of what these are.

“Understand what a veteran goes through before you decide you want to give them advice because it's not a one-size-fits-all sort of policy… There are three different acts that veterans fall under, and if you don't know which one they fall under, you're going to give the wrong advice,” he said.

Stamp emphasised the importance of showing veterans that he understands their experiences – something that those who have not served will likely struggle with.

“It's all about rapport. I think my value is that I have that rapport, all I have to do is tell them what I did in the military, and you've got this rapport and people sort of see, ‘oh, this guy understands’. So to me, it's a hard one.”

“I've had guys try to break into it, and they're just not getting any traction because they don't have that rapport, or they can't sympathise with the veteran community, regardless of who they are.

“It's almost like I did 11 years in the military just to set myself up to be a financial adviser. That's what it feels like … I don't know if I'd be able to do it if I didn't have that background.”