If you've been to any of my Maximizing Social Security courses, you probably understand that I think that delaying Social Security at least for one spouse makes a lot of sense.   Ideally if a spouse can delay their own Social Security until age 70, it will provide maximum payments for them and the subsequent surviving spouse and put less pressure on the investment portfolio to deliver results year in and year out. … [Read more...]

As you approach retirement, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to increase and improve your own Social Security benefit, but they still exist.   The benefit amount of the Social Security benefit for your own working record is based on a complex formula that takes the highest 35 years of your work history. Therefore, the easiest way to increase your own Social Security benefit is to maximize these 35 years.   If you are an individual who has not worked in the Social Security … [Read more...]

When seeking advice on Social Security claiming, one must be careful who to consult.   A lot of Social Security advice that gets implemented is based on conversation with friends and family or around the water cooler with coworkers, comparing the age that they claimed benefits.   Everyone's circumstances are unique and so one temptation may be to go directly to the Social Security Administration for advice about claiming strategies, bypassing all other sources.   It may be a … [Read more...]

The surviving spouse benefit is a critical part of retirement planning.   At some point in time, nearly every married couple will have to deal with the loss of their spouse and the financial ramifications that go with it. When both a husband and wife are eligible for a Social Security benefit, and one spouse predeceases the other, the surviving spouse is entitled to the higher of the two Social Security benefits.  Assuming the surviving spouse has reached full retirement age, they are … [Read more...]

The year 2015 brought about significant changes to the Social Security system through the Bipartisan Budget Act.   In typical political style, each side of the aisle negotiated to have desired law and rule changes implemented by mutually conceding items to the other side. Some lawmakers felt that there was a loophole in the Social Security system that needed to be closed regarding ways to maximize Social Security that were not originally intended. … [Read more...]