Breakout Session

Optimizing Social Security Benefits is Still Complicated

Level of Complexity: Intermediate

Speaker(s)

• 

  William Reichenstein, PhD, CFA

  Head of Research
  Social Security Solutions, Inc. and Reitree, Inc.

After discussing Social Security rule changes in November 2015, William Reichenstein presents 10 reasons why it is still complicated to determine when clients should claim their benefits. There are now two sets of rules depending upon date of birth and with the SSA's use of strange dating features, many new retirees have different full retirement ages for retirement and spousal benefits than for survivor benefits. Learn about clients options to redo a prior claiming decision and other complications around claiming strategies for widow(er)s younger than 70, for earnings tests, children’s benefits, divorced benefits, disability benefits, and especially pensions from work not covered by Social Security.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe recent rule changes and strategies related to Social Security changes specifically new rules around date of birth.
• Explain the rules affecting and claiming strategies related to earnings tests, children’s benefits, divorced benefits, disability benefits, and survivor benefits.
• Define how the WEP and GPO affect benefits for clients that receive a pension from a job not covered by Social Security and their spouses.