Helping military families

Washington Post It cannot be said that the U.S. military mistreats the families of service members who die on active duty. Every year survivors receive 55 percent of what their spouse would have earned if they were retired, plus other benefits, including as much as $250,000 -- if, that is, they have not followed bad advice and opted out of the government's insurance package. It can, however, be said ... that the U.S. military fails to offer consistently good advice to its employees, particularly its younger employees, on how or whether to buy government or other kinds of insurance.
Perplexingly, the military has repeatedly allowed unscrupulous insurance agents onto military bases and looked the other way while they sold expensive, outdated insurance and investment products to young soldiers. In some cases, insurance sales representatives who were banned from one base simply went to others.
Unfair insurance products
The House Committee on Financial Services is considering a bill that would ban certain kinds of unfair insurance products altogether, clarify state insurance regulators' authority over military bases, and require insurance agents to inform military personnel in writing about the government's life insurance policies before making any kind of additional sale.
Groups that represent military families point out other steps the military could take: offer better transitional support to families of deceased soldiers who may suddenly stop receiving paychecks before their benefits have arrived, for example, and allow families with children to remain in base housing until the end of the school year.