In Sickness and In Health (....and in Retirement!)
When your clients are planning for their retirement, it’s important to ensure that they aren’t leaving any money on the table. For married clients, spousal benefits are a Social Security perk that could help maximize income they can never outlive.
Spousal benefits were originally designed to give Social Security benefits to retirees who had never worked outside of the home or who had to take time out of the workforce at some point. Today, it is common for both spouses to work, but overall household income is still lost if one spouse stops working for reasons like childcare or taking care of an ill family member.
Spousal benefits can be claimed when the working spouse has started claiming their own Social Security benefits. Once a non-working spouse has reached their full retirement age, they can claim spousal benefits, which will amount to half of the working spouse’s full retirement benefit.
Remember, the breadwinner should delay taking benefits for as long as possible, because the breadwinner’s check will cover two lives!
When you’re helping your clients plan their retirement income strategies, educating them about Social Security spousal benefits can be an important step to maximizing their retirement income. Make sure your clients know if they are eligible for spousal benefits to avoid them losing out on any money. To help make navigating all aspects of Social Security easier for retirees, my Social Security and Medicare Guide has the simple, easy-to-understand answers. Click here to learn more .
See you after your next meeting,
Tom Hegna
