Wild Rules EXPOSED - Costing Veterans Thousands of Dollars! VA Fee Rules and Why You Keep Seeing 20%

Añadido: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Hey, thanks for making it to the Veterans Info Tap. I am glad you made it. The truth is out and exposure is the key. It's good to know what you are up against and why certain things are in place. I recently did a video on the cost that is associated with claims agents and attorneys and the VA from their own publication stated that 20% was was the max. I want to clarify that 20% is the maximum the VA is comfortable with in regard to withholding it from you in your back pay and giving it directly to the claims agent or attorney. They can charge more and that's what we're going to dive into here, share this with you.

[00:00:45]Before we do that, I want to jump into a special thank you to Wireless Sunday 9897. Wireless Sunday, thank you so much for the super comment, super chat thing.

[00:00:53]I really do appreciate your support very much, Wireless Sunday 9897. All right.

[00:00:59]So, here we are.

[00:01:02]The bottom line is is VA accredited claims agents and attorneys can legally charge you more than 20% of your back pay, but almost all of them, almost, not all, but almost, more than 50% stop right at the 20% mark.

[00:01:24]It doesn't mean that they're doing you a favor. It doesn't mean that they're cutting back on, you know, that you know, we're just trying to be bare-bones here. That's not what it means because we've done the math before.

[00:01:34]So, what does it really mean? Well, here's the why.

[00:01:39]It's because that number, again, from the VA publication that we recently read, um, regarding the 20% rule, it's because that's what the VA automatically gives them.

[00:01:57]Or are they avoiding something they don't want to explain to you? Well, I don't know. I mean, let's break it down because once you understand it, you'll see that the VA claims industry is very different than, well, everywhere else.

[00:02:12]And like, here's the deal. It is under law, uh, these organizations, for-profit, right? Let's split it real quick. You have veteran service officers, veteran service representatives, um, government provided or congressionally chartered, uh, provided from your VFW, American Legion, so forth. Those are all free. They're paid for, uh, from tax dollars, uh, and donations, really, is kind of the bottom line on that. So, that's that group of accredited. Now, you have your for-profit, for-profit accredited claims agents as well as attorneys.

[00:02:51]Under VA law, specifically 38 USC 5904, attorneys and accredited agents are allowed to charge reasonable fees for representation after an initial decision.

[00:03:07]This means that they are not allowed to charge you for an initial claim, your very first claim. They cannot charge you. It has to be free.

[00:03:17]But, if that claim fails and they file a supplemental claim or some sort of an appeal, now they can charge you.

[00:03:27]So, the VA considers fees 20% or less of your retroactive back pay to be presumptively reasonable.

[00:03:40]What does that mean for the organization? Well, it means no extra scrutiny. I'm guaranteed payment. It means I don't need to justify anything.

[00:03:51]Justification is not, uh, not required and it's basically just automatically accepted by the VA.

[00:03:59]However, anything over 20%, well, now now the VA can go, "Well, wait a minute.

[00:04:08]Why are you charging more?

[00:04:10]Is it justified? And is it reasonable?"

[00:04:15]So, to avoid that, many organizations, firms out there that are accredited, uh, by the VA for-profit, will just cut their losses, so to speak, go with the 20% guaranteed to avoid the additional scrutiny and justification.

[00:04:36]So, now the real question is, if they can charge more, why don't they? Well, here are some reasons, potentially.

[00:04:45]Avoiding VA scrutiny. The second a firm charges more than 20%, the VA can review the fee agreement.

[00:04:55]They can reduce the fee. They can challenge the firm.

[00:04:59]For most firms out there, they don't they don't want to have to deal with the VA peeking into how good they are.

[00:05:09]Another reason could be the presumptive, uh, the presumptively reasonable is a safe harbor, right? So, in the law, it needs to be reasonable. The VA has determined that 20% is reasonable at the maximum level, reasonable.

[00:05:28]So, 20% is basically the legal maximum safe zone.

[00:05:34]Once once they stay at that or under, they, the organizations, don't have to defend their pricing to the VA. They don't have to justify their work. It even keeps everything, uh, very clean and predictable. Now, risk versus reward, you know, is it worth it? Is it not? Some places out there, typically attorneys, are charging, you know, 25 or 30% or or even 33 and a third, right? Um, might bring in more money, but it does increase the legal risk, it invites disputes, and it can slow down payments.

[00:06:12]Most firms would rather process more cases at 20% than fight over higher percentages. Now, here's the deal.

[00:06:21]If you, as a veteran, have hit multiple roadblocks and you are now, let's just say, and again, this is coming from a former accredited veteran service officer in the benefits world, in the accredited world for a very long time prior to doing anything on YouTube.

[00:06:42]A good veteran service organization officer that that can represent you can absolutely represent you, in my opinion, from my own personal experience, easily from, obviously, your initial claim, higher level review, uh, with the, um, check box for that, um, informal conference, the supplemental claim aspect, the Board of Veterans Appeals. I personally sat in on multiple, uh, um, appeals at the board with the veteran.

[00:07:19]Once it gets past the board, though, and goes to the US Court of Appeals on veterans claims, that is where I would really recommend seeing what your options are from a attorney.

[00:07:37]An accredited attorney because it is getting very complex at that point and you want a lawyer to represent you.

[00:07:46]Now, another reason you might want to go the paid route, uh, would be maybe a CUE, a clear and unmistakable error. Uh, you get one chance at that and you want to make sure that you have everything lined up the best that you can. And again, I personally would recommend an attorney to go through that with the attorney's mindset, if you if you get what I'm saying. So, moving on here, um, when we think about organizations that are out there charging for fees, whether or not they're accredited or not accredited, you really need to be aware of what you are paying for.

[00:08:38]In my humble opinion, I think that there should be a cap on all of it.

[00:08:45]Accredited, non-accredited organizations.

[00:08:50]Um, the the fix, if Congress is listening, right? The fix would be twofold, in my opinion, to better the circumstances for disabled veterans in our nation, which is what the goal seems to be as we listen.

[00:09:11]And I think that the fix, again, is twofold. One is you could, from a national perspective and state and local government perspective, put more money and invest more heavily into government provided veteran service officers and representatives that can provide services for free to veterans.

[00:09:38]That's a fix.

[00:09:40]An- another, uh, or the second piece to that would be having a cap on the amount, uh, that is payable.

[00:09:50]Now, again, we can see accredited, uh, attorneys, typically, or claims agents, receive up to, you know, 30% of your back pay, which is substantial.

[00:10:07]Personally, I cannot see The dollar amounts are always different, but personally, I cannot see any situation in which a veteran should have to pay more than $10,000 for representation um, for something that is actually due to them.

[00:10:30]So, let's remember that an awarded VA claim is the VA and the United States government saying, yes, we owe this to you.

[00:10:40]It shouldn't have to cost you, the disabled veteran $10,000 or more to be given the benefits that you earned through your time in service.

[00:10:53]So, you know, I'm just going to throw out funny numbers.

[00:10:57]Maybe if you're represented at the, uh, Court of Appeals, it's $10,000 is the maximum, right? Maybe at the Board of Appeals, it's $5,000.

[00:11:08]Uh, maybe if it's just a supplemental claim, or, uh, higher level review you know, maybe it's $2,500 or $3,000 um, is the maximum. Ideally, free, right? Which is what we talked about.

[00:11:23]Seeing it from the, uh, perspective of more government-provided free resources for veterans to access the benefits that they earned through their time in service. What I don't want to see is veterans being bled out uh, because the system is cumbersome.

[00:11:42]And for those that hung on till the end, I mean, this is this is the reason why I created VetsIQ.

[00:11:51]Which is an educational and empowerment program to bring you, the veteran, up to speed with the knowledge that you need to make sure that you can get the most out of your benefits. Making sure that you are able to get yourself properly rated. Now, the ideal situation is is that you educate yourself, you take that information with you, you go work with a free accredited representative who can then help you implement everything that you've learned. Then they can keep an eye on it on the background, make sure that everything goes through, and then, um, be that, uh, additional resource.

[00:12:26]So, with that, I really do appreciate, uh, all of your support. Check out the links in the description and in the comments. Uh, vetsiq.org is the website address. Got all of the information there for you, as well.

[00:12:39]Thanks for watching. I appreciate you very much. Have a great one, and remember, if we don't take care of each other, something went wrong.