If you watch Fox N
ews you are bombarded with the ads for New Day USA, a company selling home equity loans to veterans. A good number of the ads feature Rear Admiral Thomas C. Lynch, a 32-year retired veteran of the United States Navy and Chairman of New Day USA.
Admiral Lynch tells us we should trust him because he served with us understands us and is here to help us. All is probably true and what he is doing, flacking for a finance company, is not unlawful or illegal; however it is unethical and perhaps immoral.
No law exists banning senior military officers from selling products using their rank and the trust and the confidence they earned over decades of honorable service. However, an unwritten rule of ethics, an unwritten ethical standard, is that a serving or retired senior military officer will not use his/her military officer rank to sell soap, sox or anything other item. Admiral Lynch saying you should trust him and go even more deeply into debt because he is as leader who earned your trust and confidence and says so, is wrong. His sales pitch is immoral and just plain unethical; once again it is totally legal.
In researching New Day USA, I found a report in Military 
Times that New Day USA was fined two million dollars by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau for deceptive advertising and paid kickbacks to a major veterans’ group, the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The VFW maintains it was misled by New Day USA and corrected the problem as soon as notified. No action was taken or is contemplated by the Bureau against the VFW.
New Day USA is $2 million lighter, but making around one hundred million a year, they hardly miss it.
The burr under my saddle is Admiral Lynch being used as a pitch man for a company that is less than fully on the level. Even if the company was the most moral, lawful and honest lending broker in the world, Admiral Tom Lynch should not be a pitch man, it is just wrong.
After the Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee was offered $50,000, an enormous amount of money at the time, to be pitch man for an insurance company and he refused. Robert E. Lee was broke, homeless, jobless and with no prospects, but his honor and ethics would not allow him to accept. A general/admiral or any senior officer who uses his/her rank to get veterans to purchase anything is in my view a contemptible human being.
Flag officers (a term for a General Officer or Admiral) who identify themselves as experts because of their training and experience is fine; in keeping with the unwritten standard. A senior officer who works as a talking head news commentator is ethical. The line is crossed when they say trust me and purchase a product because I vouch for it; it makes a flag officer no better than a baseball or football player selling shaving cream or razor blades.
General U.S. Grant lent his name to an insurance company that failed and he regretted it until the day he died. To his credit, General Grant did see that every investor was reimbursed, even working on his biography almost up to the day he died, wasting away from cancer, to raise the necessary funds.
A special bond exists among those of us who served in our nation’s military. The trust earned over decades of honorable service by our senior leaders is a sacred bond that no one should sell for personal profit. The bond is just too precious to cash in for a few pieces of silver.
Admiral Lynch sold his honor; no matter what the price he sold it for it was not enough. Honor is priceless. Well it is to those of us who understand its true value.
If you look at RADM Lynch’s bio, the man’s a fraud. Never served on active service once and his tenure as Spt at Annapolis was not renewed due to a cheating scandal.
Vet my ass.
What a ridiculous statement of misinformation. You may not like Adm. Lynch, but your blatant lie that he never served on active duty makes anything else in your comment valueless. Read his bio.
Where in the Hell did you get your info about RADM Lynch?
You are lying, stupid or both!
I will bet on both.
You are full of shit Rory or Cory or Bory or whatever ghost name you go by.
Never liked Lynch from the moment I saw his first self aggrandizung tv ad. Unseemly, but consistent with my experience as a Navy officer whenever I ran into one of these narcissistic glory boys. That New Day has been fined for illegal practice under his “leadership” is not surprising. Hey Adm Tom – first lesson any officer needs to embrace (and never forget) is that it’s never all about YOU! A retired USNR aviator/O5 sends.
Any commissioned officer, any branch of the service, Active or Reserve, should be far above this shady type of behavior. He is actually trading on his Rank / Former Position to sell something that should be so far beneath him. Shame on you RADM lynch. You should bow your head in embarrassment and shame. I’m totally embarrassed to know that you were in the same branch of the service as I. Step away from this morass of waste now while there is a chance. – HMC(FMF,Ret) Sends.
As a Marine Vietnam era veteran and now as a Pastor, I was disturbed the first time I saw and heard Admiral Lynch, pitching for New Day. I have little knowledge of the rules for retired Senior Military Officers, but in my gut I felt “This is just wrong”. Supposedly, a Senior Military Officer has earned our trust, but to use this trust to hawk for a company or product Is blatantly unethically. In the Marine Corps we were trained to obey our leaders, but obedience is tempered by trust. I am also disappointed in the VFW, for being taken in by this scamming of Veterans. The VFW helped myself and thousands of other Vets thtough the maze of regulations to receive help from the Veterans Administration. I hope they have learned their lesson. Admiral Lynch, Please restore our trust, stop drawing Veterans into Debt. Severe this unethical relationship. You have earned a substantial retirement package. Don’t sell your soul for a “fistfull of dollars”
Even more disappointing is that General James L. Jones (USMC, ret.) and former 32nd CMC is on the NewDay USA Board of Directors… sad!
I am a 1974 USNA Grad. I was enlisted Navy and was appointed via NAPS. Sadly, Lynch is typical of the senior Navy ooficers I met there and upon commision. They talked a good show about “honor” but it was always about them. The only consistently honorable leadership I saw there were the USMC officers. I took my comission in the Corps and never once regretted it. Lynvh is a typical scamming Navy football player….never trust them.
A former Naval officer, I did not graduate from the USNA, but I taught and coached there. Two of my students were Joe Bellino and Roger Staubach. They weren’t “typical scamming Navy football players”.
Why are you so bitter?
Couldn’t disagree more Ron…I worked 15 years for one of the largest sub-servicers of mortgage backed securities of which the CEO and Chairman flew dust-offs in Nam and was with the air-cav. I was with 2/4 then 1/26 then 1/9 and then with the ROKs in Hoi An. I have absolutely nothing wrong with him noting his military experience and he and I often joked about the difference between Army and Marines. Would you feel the same way if Adm Lynch promoted Coca-cola or how about Lucky Strikes or maybe Spam or how about Colt or possibly GM since they were the sub contractors on most tanks in Nam or better yet how about his vouching for Bell Aircraft since he had a ton of stick time in God knows how many hot LZs. Your complaint rings hollow my man, very very hollow.
Another thing that is very disturbing is that someone who supposedly is a leader is telling vets to take out a 30-year mortgage to pay off credit cards, buy a car or get cash for immediate needs. That is the worst financial advice anyone could give to anyone else. Totally irresponsible! So sad.
You are totally right. To tell someone to take out a home loan to put money in their bank account is criminal.
I agree! Going after retired military pay checks. He reminds me of the pawn shops and car dealers outside of Camp Lejune. Just low class.
Eddy, it’s the first thing I thought of after reading the story! Most of the pawn shops and tire and wheel stores were owned by retired Sergeants Majors! It was a continuous fight to keep my troops from being ripped off and broke less than a week after payday! Semper Fidelis!
I called and wanted to move our home from a arm to fixed rate. I told them this from the start and I request a 15 year. The man I spoke with said he had a meeting but would call back. Later that day he called back and said that my FICO score was 716 and they could not do a 15year but, we can do 30??? I was not cashing out and we have our home stick built now at 35,097. So let us hit you with 30 year so we can make more.
I guess a lot of my fellow veterans here never thought about post-military careers. My wife and I are both veterans of the Air Force and Navy respectively. We purchased a home through a lender who sold our mortgage to another company without warning and the changing of companies continued. I feel like we are being fleeced. We are now looking at veteran-centric lenders like New Day, Navy Federal or USAA. I’m sure that those and others have retired military personal on their boards, as does Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, General Dynamics … and Toys-r-Us. So what’s really the issue here ..?
Standards of Conduct for DoD Personnel stipulates that even the impression of using one’s office for personal gain constitutes a violation of those standards; this is one of several conditions that constitute violation of the DoD’s standards because of the impression of a conflict of interest.
PLEASE… don’t compare Navy Federal Credit Union and USAA with NEW DAY!
New Day are scam artists and I’d like to know how to get these toads to stop sending me “offers”. Now I’m getting “activation cards” that lookj exactly like a credit card.
New Day just go away!
I am a disabled Veteran 100% for PTSD and some physical injuries. I received my award from VA in 2003. Over the years I have suffered a lot of instability in my life as a result of my mental illness. As a result, I am just now a home owner at the age of 57. I have never been able to use my 100% VA home loan benefit, as my credit rating has never been high enough to qualify. I have tried and tried to get it to the 640 mark to be able to qualify, I have been told to get credit cards, take out loans to get the score high enough.
I did so and the credit score was barely affected by doing so, and as a result the instability in my life caused be to default on some of these loans etc and I witnessed my credit score plummet practically overnight.
In short, getting credit and paying over years on time barely saw my credit score rise, but then missing a payment or defaulting because of my illness, caused it to plummet immediately.
So I took a different approach. I moved to a small town in Kansas and bought a house on a payment plan from an owner and stayed home for three years and paid off the $36,000 loan in three years. I now own a home, free and clear.
SO I went to my bank to borrow $15,000 to pay off bad debt to clear up my credit rating and was denied due to my credit score. I couldn’t even use my home value as collateral.
So after hearing the advertisements on television about New Day USA and how much they “care” about us Veterans I decided to try them.
The exact wording of their advertisements on TV is; “If you are a Veteran and own your own home, we will finance 100% of your homes Value to help you with your debts.”
So I applied. I was immediately informed by the representative on the telephone that the wording in the ad was incorrect. VA cannot give you a home loan on a home that is already paid off. Further, I was promised a call back from another department a few days later, and I never got the call, but I did get the letter stating I could not get any help because of my bad debt. I think you need to look into New Day USA as they are not being honest in their advertising, nor their approach.
I feel the whole 100% VA home loan program is disingenuous as aside from being able to get 100% of a home financed through VA, it is not different from other bank loans.
Additionally, these young men and women serving in the Armed Forces sacrifice their family lives, serve, get hurt, come home to broken homes, divorce, their credit ratings are affected, they spiral into depression, drug/alcohol addiction and then become homeless.
Doesn’t it make more sense to get these veterans into a home of their own asap, drop the credit score prerequisite and get them stabilized? I think Veterans should be able to get a 100% home loan, period. No credit score qualification.
Our Government wastes billions of dollars on all kind of stupid programs, sent billions to countries that hate us, yet our Veterans cannot get a home loan, nor the stability they need. Disgraceful.
I know if I had been able to purchase a home of my own a long time ago, I would not have had the instability I have endured.
Just my opinion.
Lloyd Hall
Disabled Veteran
Great comments, Bro. Thanks for taking the time. You’re a real patriot.
Bob Cusanelli,
MSgt, USAF (Retired)
Lloyd, yes you can get a VA loan on a free and clear property…what you can’t get is a Streamline refi on a free and clear property unless there is an existing VA loan on the property, that the veteran receive a net tangible benefit, that the new rate, fixed to fixed, is at least 0.50% less than the existing rate, that there is no appraisal and no income required, that you provide a current COE to insure the funding fee can be waived, DD-214 not needed and no issues on your CAIVRS report (no defaulted federal debts ie, student loans backed by the fed)…if property is free and clear you can qualify off you disability which is non taxable non tax reportable and the lender will gross up 125%, so if he disability is $3000 the qualifying income is $3750. Hope all this helps and Sempre Fi bro.
The first thing that I noticed about Admiral Lynch is that, in spite of being a graduate of USNA and also having been its superintendent, Lynch does not seem to know that “veteran” is a three-syllable word. It is not pronounced “vetran.”
“No law exists banning senior military officers from selling products using their rank and the trust and the confidence they earned over decades of honorable service. However, an unwritten rule of ethics, an unwritten ethical standard, is that a serving or retired senior military officer will not use his/her military officer rank to sell soap, sox or anything other item.”
From the many required annual “Department of Defense Standards of Conduct” I attended, one of the items I recall distinctly concerned appearing in uniform to endorse political candidates, and a correlate concerning using one’s office/rank for personal gain. While one could argue that the Standards of Conduct applied to DoD uniformed personnel, I believe that RADM Lynch is walking a perilous line with NewDayUSA. A relevant test for the application of this standard of conduct might be determined by a reasonable answer to this question: Would you, or perhaps anyone, be more inclined to buy a product or service endorsed by a veteran displaying pictures of himself in flag officer attire attesting to a 32-year-long Navy officer career? Would a reasonably-minded individual conclude that it’s possible that RADM Lynch is using his (past commissioned) officer status to attract more customers and therefore revenue for a business he represents as president/CEO/Board Chair? A follow-up question would be: Just how, and how much, is RADM Lynch paid/compensated?
Bear in mind that certain stipulations of the DoD Standards of Conduct involve merely giving the IMPRESSION of conflicts of interest, particularly using one’s status for personal gain.
This is sad indeed because he is promoting 100% loans to Veterans. Surely we remember what happened in 2008 when House prices declined in the great recession and so many military veterans were left underwater by tens of thousands of dollars on their mortgages because they were 100% financed and they had 0 equity to fall back on? — It bothers me greatly every time I see this guy on TV< or get one of the "NewDayUSA" advertising envelopes in my mailbox. —
The guy served over 30 years, has one hell of a pension check already, but SELLS HIS SOUL and his Ethics, while putting all of the clients at risk in "100% financed" loans. Absolutely Disgraceful.
He was the reason I went with New Day. He seemed truly invested in helping Veterans with their Mortgages.
Bottomline… New Day helped my wife and me to refi and pull a few bucks out of our home.
New Day and their crew really helped us!
I’m going through my refinance with them right now and they’ve been great so far. I’m taking a $70k cash out and going from a 20 yr loan (5 yrs into it) to a 30 yr loan with almost a 2 point decrease in % rate. After one year, plan on re-fi’ing back into a 15 yr loan. I’m going to pay-off $50k in debts and cushion my savings another $20k. Plan on staying in house another 10-15 years. I think it’s a win, say what you want. Plus, I have no issue with Admiral Lynch doing what he is doing, at least he’s not bagging on our President (Admiral McRaven), while sitting on numerous defense industry boards making millions, dissing on Trump for getting out of Syria. Look him up and Mattis and how much McRaven was a Obama boot-licker but never said a word about him. Both have made millions, while wanting our troops in every war-zone, not winning crap, while taking casualties.
CbI got refinanced for 30 years and at 100% and got money I never would have. We got exactly what they said. And they were easy to deal with. We were in trouble and they helped when no one else would or could and at 3 1/4 %
I’ve been getting RADM Lynch’s refinance pitch messages in the mail for several years. Got so tried of his solicitations and wondered if he was legit, so I googled him and found the Town Broadcast comments. Wholeheartedly agreed with all the comments I read.
Anyone on here defending his actions by utilizing false equivalence logical fallacies, probably either works for NewDay is pitifully obtuse.
Getting a job at Coca-Cola or GM, and being the face of a predatory company that gets rich by trying to put veterans in debt are entirely different animals.
I feel truly amazed that I have to explain this to adults who say they are veterans.
My wife and I are both veterans (I was an FMF Corpsman and she was a Combat Journalist in the Marine Corps), and we finally closed on our house two years ago with a VA home loan; since that time, we’ve received mail every week from these scam artists.
RADM Lynch should be ashamed of himself, but, then I read how he was in charge of the Naval Academy during its biggest cheating scandal, so I can see what type of person he is already.
What kind of “leader” that high up in the military decides to retire and spend the rest of his time trying to screw over vets – young and old – by putting them in debt while fattening his pockets?
This isn’t about losing integrity as much as it’s an illustration of what type of person he truly is at heart.
That being said, again, anyone on here defending his actions are either a lot like him at heart, or seriously naive and missing the forest due to those pesky trees being in the way.
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