A very important aspect of our work at Geyer Law involves providing assistance to veterans and their surviving spouses, specifically helping clients understand and apply for benefits through the Veteran’s Benefits Administration. While our legal practice is confined to the state of Indiana, we were very excited to learn of the work Tyisha Grant is doing out of Louisville, Kentucky to keep vets well-informed and help them make wise choices.
Originally enlisted (1999) in the Marine Corps, Grant later transferred to the Army, where, until retiring as a Sergeant First Class in 2021, she served our country in the most dangerous areas of the world, including Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait. In her capacity as assistant to platoon leaders, Grant worked variously as a truck driver, a career counselor, and in logistics.
Two thirds of the way through Grant’s tour of duty, she lost both her parents, one in 2017, the other a year later. As family members gathered for her mother’s funeral, it became clear that the deceased’s resources were several thousand dollars short of covering the burial and related expenses. The siblings began to argue, with no one eager to assume responsibility. Tyisha, on temporary leave from the service, shouldered the burden out of her own funds, vowing to devote her life to making sure no families would need to engage in such humiliating bickering about money ever again. While U.S. military veterans qualify for good medical and dental coverage, Tyisha makes sure her clients – and their heirs – are protected through life and long term care insurance and annuities.
At Geyer Law, while we do not provide insurance products, instead working with our clients’ financial planners and insurance professionals, we help our clients apply for:
- supplemental pension income
- survivors’ pensions
- home loans
- education and training resources
- “aid and attendance” for those in need of long term care
Many veterans and family members, we find, are simply unaware they they might be eligible for benefits through the U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs even if they did not directly retire from the military or suffer injuries in the line of duty.
“To help relieve their families, an increasing number of people are planning their own funerals, designating their funeral preferences, and sometimes paying for them in advance,” the Federal Trade Commission Consumer Information website points out. “They see funeral planning as an extension of will and estate planning,” the FTC observes.
At both Tyisha Grant’s agency in Lousville, Kentucky and at Rebecca W. Geyer & Associates, funeral planning is a way to help clients prepare their loved ones for the best!
– by Ronnie of the Rebecca W. Geyer & Associates blog team