Strategies to Maximize Your Social Security Retirement Benefits

Strategies to Maximize Your Social Security Retirement Benefits SSA’s retirement and disability benefits (the latter involves a medical record review) offer financial aid. Some tactics can help maximize the benefits.

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Social security retirement benefits and social security disability benefits, the latter involving a medical record review to determine the extent of disability provide financial support to a vast majority of Americans. The SSA (Social Security Administration) says about 21% of married elderly beneficiaries and 44% of unmarried ones get fully 90% or more of their income from Social Security while 48% of married elderly beneficiaries and 69% of unmarried ones get 50% or more of it. Many beneficiaries wish to increase the amount they earn and this can be achieved with certain good strategies. These strategies may require that you have reached a certain age, your date of birth falls before a cut-off date, or that you are in good health.

Let us look at some strategies that beneficiaries can use for optimizing their Social Security income.  The SSA bases their calculation on your earnings in the 35 years in which you earned the most, adjusted for inflation. One way to increase your benefits is to have higher earnings. Even if you worked for 35 years, consider working for a few more years to increase your benefit amount. If you are earning much more than you did in the past, each additional high-earning year will remove the lowest-earning year from the calculation, thereby increasing your benefits.  Spousal benefits: Your spouse can collect benefits based on your earnings record rather than their own. This is an advantage especially if your spouse has never worked, or if his/her own benefits would be significantly less. Ex-spouses also can collect benefits as long as you were married for at least 10 years. o

This strategy works if you have sufficient years of employment to qualify for your own Social Security benefits and have filed for the same.

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If you are divorced, your ex-spouse can claim a spousal benefit based on your work record even if you haven’t filed yet for your benefits. However, this is subject to certain rules.

 Delay starting to collect your benefits: Everyone has a “full” retirement age (66 or 67), and for every year beyond that you delay, your benefits will increase by about 8%. If you delay collecting the benefits from age 67 to 70, you will get a 24% increase in benefits.  Avoid filing for benefits during high-income years: You can file for Social Security benefits while you are still working. However, if you have not reached full retirement age and your earnings exceed the yearly limit ($17,640 in 2019), your benefits will be reduced. Once you reach full retirement age, you are eligible to full benefits with

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no limit on your earnings. If you have other sources of income, you may have to pay Social Security taxes. Delaying your benefits until after you have stopped working could allow you to keep a larger Social Security benefit amount, especially if you have not reached full retirement age.  Delay your divorce, if you are planning for it: If you have been married for less than 10 years and are planning to divorce, consider delaying it. Divorcees may be able to claim benefits based on their ex-spouse’s earnings if they were married for at least 10 years (even if the ex-spouse has remarried). If your ex-spouse has a considerably stronger earnings record than you have, you could collect a much bigger monthly benefit based on his or her earnings than the one based on your own record.  Survivor benefits and disability benefits: If you have been widowed or are disabled, or even related closely to someone disabled, you have a chance of earning more Social Security benefits. Social Security offers disability and survivor benefits and even retirement benefits for dependents of retirees in some specific cases. You can claim survivor benefits if your spouse passes away; your children also could receive them through age 17. Disability benefits are available to people of all ages who qualify.  Try to avoid Social Security tax: 50 to 85% of your benefit amount could be subject to federal taxes. The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) will add your non-taxable interest and half of your Social Security income to your adjusted gross income (AGI) to determine how much of your benefits will be taxed. If that amounts to $25,000 to $34,000 for single filers, or $32,000 to $44,000 for joint filers – up to 50% of your Social Security income is subject to tax. When that amount is more than $34,000 for a single filer or $44,000 for joint filers, up to 85% of the benefit amount would be subject to federal taxes. To prevent any increases that could lead to a higher tax, consider ways to spread out your income from various sources.

Social Security benefits are a significant part of your retirement plan, but often it is not given due attention. As a medical chart review company assisting social security and disability lawyers, we understand that people planning retirement as well as disabled individuals can benefit a lot from apt legal counsel. A good lawyer can provide the right advice regarding the steps to take in this regard and maximize your benefits. It is vital to understand the importance of Social Security as a major component of one’s income during retirement. Review the strategies to maximize social security benefits within the context of your retirement plan and implement them with care. This will surely make a significant difference in your retirement benefits.

www.mosmedicalrecordreview.com

918-221-7791