Service members would be better suited to make retirement-related decisions if the Pentagon would provide more useful information, the government’s top watchdog said. In an Oct. 21 report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated that the existing training courses do not adequately assess service members’ “financial literacy.” Courses should be revised, GAO stated, to address areas in which future retirees could use more help.
GAO offered three recommendations:
* Pentagon leadership should “evaluate the results of its financial literacy training assessments,” to identify and end gaps.
* Service members should be given official disclosures that explain the “positive and negative ramifications” of taking lump-sum retirement payments. The disclosure should include “a description of how it is calculated.”
* Service members could use different and better options for receiving their initial Thrift Savings Plan password, “so that [they] can access and manage their online accounts without added delays.”
