Grieving Families Trusted an Army Financial Adviser. They Lost Fortunes.

As the families seek to recoup their losses through litigation, their cases have alarmed observers and financial experts who say the episode appears to have exposed glaring oversight failures within the Army while underscoring the need for far greater accountability over those advising the recipients of such vast sums of money in moments of crisis. The faith these families placed in the Army, they said, appears to have been abused.

“The Army certainly should have been aware this person was working two full-time jobs,” said Katherine L. Kuzminski, a military policy expert at Center for a New American Security, emphasizing that it is the service that is responsible for guaranteeing that life insurance beneficiaries “receive ethical treatment.” Financial counseling is a good idea, in theory, she added, but only if the highest standards can be enforced “to ensure families, who financial advisers are set up to protect in the first place, are truly protected and not taken advantage of.”

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