Your Goals Matter
Using our Guided Retirement System™, we examine the following to create a retirement plan that is specific to your family’s needs and goals.
Below are the steps we take to build an individual retirement plan. It is coordinated by a team of professionals to achieve your goals for retirement.
THREE MAJOR CATEGORIES OF BENEFITS
A good Social Security claiming strategy makes the most out of the following three categories:
1. Your Retirement Benefit
2. Your Spousal Benefit
3. A Survivor Benefit
1. Your Retirement Benefit
We look at your overall financial situation to determine how you can maximize your Social Security benefits. We will look at your income, savings, and tax situation.
To identify the best time to claim your Social Security, we must know how the benefit will interact with the other factors involved in retirement planning.
2. Your Spousal Benefit
You may be able to receive half of the household’s primary wage earner’s benefit amount. In order to maximize benefits overall, it’s important to analyze both spouses Social Security situation.
We’ll also address the following items:
• File and Suspend
• Divorced Spouse Benefits
3. Survivor Benefit
When one spouse dies, the surviving spouse receives the higher of the two Social Security benefits.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN DECIDING WHEN TO APPLY
• Health Status
• Life Expectancy
• Need for Income
• Whether or Not You Plan to Work
• Survivor Needs
TO DELAY OR NOT TO DELAY
We review your potential Social Security benefit and simulate claiming at certain ages and life expectancy over 600 times to identify the best timing for your situation.
TAXATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS
Unfortunately, your Social Security benefits are not tax-free. There’s also an income test called the provisional income test. Up to 85% of the benefit becomes ordinary income taxes at whatever tax rate you are at. Multiple different things can flow in here. We want to understand what taxes you may be subject to.
SOCIAL SECURITY IS TOO IMPORTANT FOR GUESSWORK
Schedule a complimentary consultation with a CFP® professional to discuss claiming, and maximizing, your Social Security benefits. It’s just one piece of the retirement puzzle, but you should make sure you claim to serve your plan’s goals.
Schedule a Complimentary Consultation
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Our advisors are committed to helping you overcome any obstacles related to retirement planning, investments, taxes, Social Security, estate planning, and insurance for a stress-free approach to retirement.
Learn More About Our Proprietary Approach to Retirement