Can you claim an ex-spouse’s benefits? Survivor benefits? Maybe – big money can ride on your decisions.
Robert McGarvey Oct 10, 2016
Financial advisor, Charles C. Scott of Pelleton Capital Management, chimed in about the restricted advise Social Security staffers are allowed to offer the public, in Robert McGarvey’s article for The Street.
The often unspoken fearful question harbored by seniors is this: am I leaving Social Security benefit money on the table?
That is a valid worry, for three big reasons.
First: Social Security, for many elderly, is what they live on. The Social Security Administration says that 48% of married couples and 71% of singles receive more than half their income from Social Security. 43% of singles and 21% of couples receive more than 90% of their income from Social Security.
Second: the Social Security Act is immensely complicated. Its first version – the 1935 law – ran 29 pages. The current law is around 2,600.
Third: Although recent laws have closed many Social Security loopholes, the fact remains that there are tactics and gambits – sometimes esoteric – that will raise a person’s lifetime take from the system, and there also are mistakes that are just about guaranteed to lower the take.
Read that again: experts insist that Social Security decisions you may, or don’t make, may raise or lower your payout from the system by six figures. That’s $100,000 or more in lifetime benefits that are claimed, or lost.
Can’t you just ask Social Security what to do? Financial advisor Charles Scott, founder of Pelleton Capital Management, said, “Don’t expect the kind folks at the Social Security office to help you come up with the best strategy for you. That’s neither their job nor are they really allowed to offer any of that kind of advice. If you’re not talking with someone who has spent a lot of time studying the many, many options for people, you’re likely to choose what could turn out to be not the best choice for you.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
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