Biography

Nina Brennan is the Military & Veterans Editor at MeridianWallet, where she leads content for servicemembers, veterans, and military families and signs off on Military Lending Act (MLA) compliance across the site. She graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served as a United States Marine Corps officer from 2008 to 2014.

After leaving active duty as a captain in 2014, Nina earned the Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) designation with a military focus and joined the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society as a financial counselor. Over four years there she ran budget reviews, interest-free loan assessments, and deployment-finance briefings at installations on both coasts and counseled more than 900 servicemember and military-spouse households.

From 2020 through 2024 Nina served as a Military OneSource personal-financial counselor, contracted through the Department of Defense to deliver on-base and telephone counseling to active-duty, Guard, and Reserve members worldwide. She delivered hundreds of MLA briefings — including covered-borrower mechanics, the 36% MAPR cap, and the practical traps service members fall into with rent-a-bank and tribal-evasion structures.

Nina joined MeridianWallet in 2025. Her review focus: making sure every page that touches a service member or veteran is accurate, useful, and respects the unique financial pressures of military life — and that no lender presented to a covered borrower exceeds the MLA cap.

Credentials

Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) — military focus
AFCPE Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) · Active since 2015
BS (Bachelor of Science)
United States Naval Academy · 2008
Military service
United States Marine Corps, 2008–2014 · Honorably discharged as Captain
Years of experience
7 years at Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and Military OneSource

Areas of expertise

  • Military Lending Act compliance — covered-borrower checks, MAPR calculation, safe harbor
  • Military relief societies — Navy-Marine Corps Relief, Army Emergency Relief, Air Force Aid Society, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance
  • Deployment finance — SCRA protections, dual-income gaps, family-readiness budgeting
  • Veterans benefits — VA education, VA home loans, disability compensation interactions
  • Military family-readiness counseling — PCS budgeting, spousal employment, OCONUS finance

Articles reviewed by Nina

Nina authored or reviewed: