According to the BLS, the 2012 unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans between the ages of 45 and 54 was 7.7 percent, more than a percentage point higher than the average among non-veterans between 45 and 54, which was 6.2 percent. Ironically, these returning vets are actually returning with more skills than many of their civilian counterparts – in other words, potentially a perfect fit with the demands of the insurance industry.

Now the insurance industry is looking to tap into the vet market. Disabled Veterans Insurance Careers (DVIC) is a nonprofit organization specifically targeting physically disabled veterans for training and eventually jobs cross-selling personal lines within independent agencies. And The National Alliance's Careers for Life program is focused on training and recruiting both returning vets and their spouses for lifetime careers in insurance and risk management.

With a board of directors including familiar names like Jon Bidwell of Chubb, Jim Hackbarth of Assurex and others, DVIC is working with the National Alliance in developing a curriculum to train vets, resulting in CIC, CRM, CISR and CSRM designations.

It's a natural fit since the National Alliance does business in every state and online, and has relationships with insurers and 38 agent associations, said Dr. William T. Hold, National Alliance founder.

“Most veterans don't have a clue of insurance being a career path,” Dr. Hold said. “And the insurance industry is actually looking for people. Wherever they (vets or spouses) want to work, we can help them find a job at thousands of agencies and companies across the country. It's a great benefit for agencies because the training will be paid for.”

With all that logic behind it—and with the screaming need for talented agency personnel–you'd think these efforts would yield a lot of success.

But the hurdles are formidable.

I spoke with Chris Paradiso, president of Paradiso Insurance and a DVIC board member, who said the group's founders initially believed they could raise money from within their own contacts, but have fallen short–in spite of support like last year's $50,000 donation from The Council's FAME program. This is a real concern: because neither the vet nor the agency has to pay for the service, the cost of training has to come from either a federal program like the GI Bill, or donations.

The thing is, no two disabled veterans are alike. Although Chris estimates that it will take an average of $40,000 per vet for training, the price tag varies widely depending on the severity of the vet's disability. In cases where, for example, the vet is missing arms and legs, a big portion of the training bill will be for adaptable technology or one-on-one training.

Worse is the attitude on the part of some insurance agencies, which are reluctant to hire disabled vets because they're concerned that they'll be emotionally unstable, Chris said.

While PTSD is a real thing, assuming that all vets will have mental issues is just plain discriminatory, said Kevin McPoyle, president of KMRD Partners Inc. and a member of the DVIC board.

“It's the great unspoken,” said McPoyle, a former captain in the U.S. Army, of the general population's misconceptions about vets in the workplace. “Of the 600,000 who have served faithfully in the last 10 years, you may have one CNN report about an unhinged vet” which feeds the misconceptions. He pointed out that the ratio of U.S. citizens who have served in the military versus the generation population is 1 percent—a statistic that means most people don't understand how veterans can translate their skills to the civilian world so that both will benefit.

McPoyle agrees that getting carriers to pony up to the DVIC has been an issue, probably because they have their own pet charities.

But instead of looking at hiring vets as a charitable act, the real issue is to get them to see that by hiring a trained vet, “you're going to get someone of significant value for your organization,” McPoyle said.

Both the DVIC and Careers for Life are currently working with veterans' groups like Soldier for Life and the Wounded Warrior Project and entities within the insurance industry to identify viable veteran candidates and find places to train them (one of DVIC's “training grounds” is Hub).

Dr. Hold hopes that the Careers for Life program will see 200 vets enrolled this year—a drop in the bucket compared with the rolls of veterans who need jobs. “There are 130,000 people retiring from the military every year, 30,000 just from the Army,” he said. “We are just asking people in the business to see if there are opportunities in their companies and if they'd be interested in hiring a vet with this training. We're not guaranteeing anybody a job, just opening a new vista for people who never really thought of this.”

But Kevin McPoyle believes the issue of hiring veterans goes beyond simple ROI for the insurance industry. “We owe these people our appreciation and the resources to help them,” McPoyle said.

Chris Paradiso, whose small-town Connecticut agency specifically targets military families, agrees. “I look at my kids and think about what these veterans have sacrificed for their freedom,” he said.