Delivering the news on new foreclosure-prevention tool going into a mortgage helps you strengthen your relationship with Veterans long-term
Can you hear the collective sigh of Veteran borrowers everywhere? The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) formally launched its new Partial Claim Program in June 2026, giving veterans behind on a VA-backed mortgage a structured way to get current without losing their home or their original loan terms. Though it runs through mortgage servicers, not originators, brokers shouldn’t miss their chance to play an important role here. If anything, it raises the bar for what advocacy is supposed to look like.
One of the biggest misconceptions in our business is that a broker's job ends when the loan funds. I see it the other way around. A VA specialist has a responsibility to keep advocating for that Veteran long after closing, because buying the home is only the start.
As stated, we are not the ones administering the Partial Claim Program. That sits with the servicer, who places qualified Veterans on a three-month trial payment plan before the VA advances funds to bring the loan current. But right out of the gate, we should be the ones making sure clients understand the new program and that foreclosure is rarely the first option, or the only one, when hardship hits. Too many veterans wait too long to ask for help because they assume a missed payment means losing the house. The message we give them going into a mortgage is straightforward: Reach out early, call your servicer right away, and loop in your mortgage originator, so you understand your options before things get critical. Let’s look at our role in a different way–our job isn't to write more loans, it's to create more successful veteran homeowners.
Vets are in the same boat as everyone else
The three-month trial period built into the new program tells me what a lot of us are already seeing. Veterans are not struggling because there is something wrong with the VA loan. They are under the same pressure as everybody else right now. Inflation, higher rates, insurance premiums climbing, property taxes going up, the cost of just about everything stretching the monthly budget.
The lesson for us is that getting someone qualified is not the same as getting them ready to own a home for the long haul. Underwriting tells you whether the numbers work today. It says nothing about how that family holds up if something changes a year from now. That’s why this work has moved past chasing approvals. We have to act like long-term advisors, and part of the conversation should cover what a Veteran can comfortably carry five or ten years out, not just what they can buy this month.
Building affordability stress tests into every VA consultation
According to the VA, they worked with mortgage servicers to help 173,000 veterans avoid foreclosure in fiscal year 2025 alone through its various home retention options. Numbers like that back up something I have believed for a long time. It’s not how many loans you close, it’s how many Veterans are still in their home's years later.
That changes how the first conversation goes. It should focus on the long-term big picture. We spend more time on whether the home is affordable over time than on the payment by itself, coupled with covering emergency savings, childcare costs down the road, taxes, insurance increases, and the possibility of a job change. I would also argue our business has leaned too hard on qualification for years and not enough on sustainability. Every consultation should walk through what happens if a Veteran’s tax bill jumps, if insurance doubles, if one income drops off for a while. None of that is hypothetical anymore. It is what many, many homeowners are actually dealing with, and it is a conversation covered in more detail in our recent piece here on why so many veterans are still overpaying VA loans.
So, the question cannot just be whether a Veteran can qualify. It must be whether they can carry the loan comfortably as life changes. Veterans deserve someone thinking a few moves ahead instead of just getting them across the finish line, and that kind of planning has to happen before the loan is written, not after the trouble starts. That comes from you. The same discipline applies to how we structure broker and lender partnerships built around speed and execution, because a fast close means little if the loan is not sustainable five years later.
The VA loan is one of the best benefits this country offers the people who served, and as an industry, we owe it to them to make sure it actually works out long after closing. Letting your Vets know the new Partial Claim Program is there for them at a time of need is a great way to give them peace of mind and strengthen your relationship.
