Maximizing Your Social Security Benefits

Overview

The leading edge of the baby boomer generation has already reached retirement age. Financial and tax planners can expect increased demand for strategies that dovetail Social Security with other retirement and estate planning objectives. This course provides tax and financial planning professionals with both the background information on the Social Security system and the strategies clients will need in dealing with Social Security, and the myriad other related retirement planning issues.

Highlights

• Retirement benefits: What the amount of benefits is in various circumstances
• Spousal benefits: Should a spouse return to work? What benefits does a spouse have and when and how do they relate to benefits decisions by the client?
• Claiming Social Security: Advantages and disadvantages at ages 62, full retirement age, and 70
• Planning: What clients approaching retirement age should consider now with respect to benefits for them, their spouses, and their children
• Coordinating benefits: Should you take Social Security first and higher-balance IRA distributions later, or take IRA balances first and enhanced Social Security benefits later?

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of retirement planning

Designed For

Practitioners who have clients contemplating receipt of Social Security

Objectives

• Identify who is entitled to retirement benefits and in what amounts
• Summarize the factors one must consider in determining when to take benefits
• Discuss the taxation of Social Security benefits and how this impacts other income tax planning
• Identify and describe the potential effects of retirement and estate planning strategies