I’m so grateful to have Heather Walrath joining us on the podcast today. She currently serves as financial education and accredited financial counselor at the Navy Mutual Aid Association. As part of the Education Team, Heather speaks one-on-one with servicemembers and spouses and provides group presentations to servicemembers and families across the country to increase their knowledge and understanding of financial matters. Her areas of expertise include military and survivor benefits, including VA benefits and Survivor Benefit Plan.

Heather talks about her early career interest in this profession after being an AFCPE FINRA Fellow. Her early volunteer experiences helped her build her skills and showed her how much she loved this work. Later on, she started out giving presentations on a part-time basis for Navy Mutual before that eventually grew into a full-time role.

Over her career, Heather has given hundreds of presentations to thousands of servicemembers and their families about military transition. But as you will hear, she shares just as many lessons learned from her own experience going through military transition earlier this year when her active duty spouse retired. We spend a good deal of time talking through her experience and wisdom of the transition and retirement process, how to find good source material, and the advice that can help you make an even more successful military transition yourself. I know this will be a big benefit to all our listeners both getting ready for their own transition or working with others who are!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-walrath-afc%C2%AE-mqfp%C2%AE-6531b077/

https://www.navymutual.org/mission-educate/

https://www.navymutual.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/candid_conversations_flyer-2024-01.23.2024.pdf

https://www.choosefi.com/military-fi-optimizing-your-financial-plan-before-military-retirement-daniel-kopp-cfp-ep-487/