Latest / Money In Motion with Klaas Financial / Social Security Continued
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: And our phone lines they are open for you right now.
- 0:03Speaker 1: If you've got a question for our retirement planning professionals
- 0:06Speaker 1: from Class Financial, all I gotta do is dial in
- 0:08Speaker 1: six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six
- 0:11Speaker 1: oh eight three two one thirteen ten. Love to have
- 0:14Speaker 1: you join us this morning, and we are joined by h. CJ.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Closs and Eric Schwartz, retirement planning professionals from COSS Financial.
- 0:21Speaker 1: You can learn more about them and the whole team
- 0:22Speaker 1: at Costs Financial on the website class financial dot com
- 0:26Speaker 1: that's Coss k l Aasfinancial dot com and their telephone
- 0:29Speaker 1: number six oh eight four four two five six three seven.
- 0:32Speaker 1: No charge for that initial gets to know your appointment
- 0:34Speaker 1: tech Loss Financial. It will be complimentary to you. CJ.
- 0:38Speaker 1: How you doing this morning.
- 0:40Speaker 2: I'm doing great, Just brave the snow on the way in.
- 0:42Speaker 3: I'm feeling good about it.
- 0:44Speaker 1: Yes, it can get dicey out there for sure, for sure. Eric,
- 0:48Speaker 1: how is your drive in this morning?
- 0:51Speaker 4: You know it was it was pretty slow, Sean, but
- 0:53Speaker 4: I made it.
- 0:54Speaker 1: That's good. It's good to hear, and it's smart to
- 0:57Speaker 1: keep it slow on days like today, for sure. And
- 1:00Speaker 1: we've got a conversation ahead involving social security, talking about
- 1:04Speaker 1: social security benefits and of course the effect that has
- 1:08Speaker 1: on others around you, and we'll get to that in
- 1:10Speaker 1: just a moment. One of the really cool features of
- 1:12Speaker 1: Money in Motion with Coss Financial is the Class Quiz
- 1:16Speaker 1: Question Week. This week you will have a chance to
- 1:17Speaker 1: win a twenty five dollars gift card two pet smart
- 1:21Speaker 1: from our friends at Coloss Financial. Little tip if you
- 1:23Speaker 1: listen close to the program. Just about every show, the
- 1:26Speaker 1: question and answer to the Class Quiz Question week come
- 1:29Speaker 1: up during the program, so it really benefits you to
- 1:32Speaker 1: pay close attention to the show. We'll do that a
- 1:34Speaker 1: little bit later on the program. We'll talk a little
- 1:36Speaker 1: bit more about how you can win that. And before
- 1:38Speaker 1: we get rolling on this week's conversation around social security,
- 1:41Speaker 1: let's actually take a look back at last week's program
- 1:45Speaker 1: and get the question and answer there as well.
- 1:47Speaker 4: Eric, absolutely so, as always, thank you everyone for listening,
- 1:52Speaker 4: and congratulations to our winner from last week was Jody
- 1:55Speaker 4: from Fitchburg, and the question was it was a true
- 1:58Speaker 4: or false question. Conversion means you are paying taxes on
- 2:03Speaker 4: the converted amount now, and when we say now, we
- 2:05Speaker 4: mean in the year of the conversion to enjoy tax
- 2:08Speaker 4: free withdrawals later, and the correct answer to that was true.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Fantastic, congratulations to Jody. You two can be like Jody
- 2:16Speaker 1: all You got to just pay attention to the program
- 2:18Speaker 1: and then we'll tell you how you can win a
- 2:19Speaker 1: little bit later on in the show. So as mentioned
- 2:21Speaker 1: to be talking about social Security benefits, but specifically benefits
- 2:25Speaker 1: and how they impact spouses or former spouses CJ. What
- 2:29Speaker 1: do we need to go there?
- 2:31Speaker 3: Yeah, that's correct.
- 2:32Speaker 2: Our focus for today will be on current or former
- 2:36Speaker 2: spouses of US citizens who are historically or are currently
- 2:41Speaker 2: eligible for Social Security benefits. However, before we get too
- 2:45Speaker 2: deep into that kind of narrow discussion, I want to
- 2:48Speaker 2: begin by outlining the various types of Social Security benefits
- 2:51Speaker 2: someone could be eligible to receive throughout their lifetime. We
- 2:55Speaker 2: actually did this about a month or two ago, where
- 2:57Speaker 2: we just reminded everybody, hey, there's actually when when you
- 3:00Speaker 2: say social Security, there's actually here in the United States
- 3:03Speaker 2: a lot more to that in terms of types of
- 3:06Speaker 2: benefits than I think a lot of people realize. The
- 3:08Speaker 2: most common one that we all think of is just
- 3:10Speaker 2: retirement benefits.
- 3:11Speaker 3: I work, I'm a US citizen with soci Security number.
- 3:14Speaker 2: I work, I pay Soci Security taxes through myself and
- 3:17Speaker 2: my employer, and then over time, when I get to retirement,
- 3:19Speaker 2: I get an income that is your retirement benefit. However,
- 3:22Speaker 2: there are various types of Social Scurity benefits, and they
- 3:25Speaker 2: include one of the five categories. Category number one retirement benefits,
- 3:31Speaker 2: which I just mentioned, Category number two disability insurance benefits,
- 3:36Speaker 2: Category number three survivor benefits, Category number four Family benefits,
- 3:41Speaker 2: and Category number five Supplemental Security income benefits. Now, according
- 3:47Speaker 2: to the Sociecurity Administration, here are quick definitions of each
- 3:51Speaker 2: type of benefit someone could be eligible to receive. So
- 3:54Speaker 2: of those five, let's just go through quick definitions, beginning
- 3:58Speaker 2: with Socialecurity retirement benefits, the most.
- 4:00Speaker 3: Common of them all.
- 4:01Speaker 2: This is a monthly check that replaces part of your
- 4:05Speaker 2: income when you reduce your hours or stop working altogether.
- 4:09Speaker 2: It may not replace all your income, so it's best
- 4:12Speaker 2: to identify other ways to pay for your monthly expenses
- 4:16Speaker 2: as you age.
- 4:17Speaker 3: Everybody.
- 4:18Speaker 2: That is a definition from Social Security's website. Benefit item
- 4:23Speaker 2: number two. The soci Security Disability Insurance Benefit, also known
- 4:27Speaker 2: as SSDI, provides monthly payments to people who have a
- 4:32Speaker 2: disability that stops or limits their ability to work. So
- 4:37Speaker 2: social Security disability is for people who have a disability
- 4:41Speaker 2: that stops or limits their ability to work. Number three,
- 4:44Speaker 2: the Social Security Survivor Benefit provides monthly payments to eligible
- 4:49Speaker 2: family members of people who worked and paid Social Security
- 4:53Speaker 2: taxes before they died. So right in the definition there,
- 4:57Speaker 2: survivor benefits is for family members of somebody who has died.
- 5:02Speaker 2: A category Number four, the soci Security Family Benefit provides
- 5:06Speaker 2: monthly payments to certain family members of people who are
- 5:10Speaker 2: eligible for retirement or disability. Often people confuse the family
- 5:16Speaker 2: benefit with the survivor benefit. Survivor is for certain family
- 5:21Speaker 2: members of people who have died. Family benefits are for
- 5:25Speaker 2: certain family members of somebody who is living and is
- 5:29Speaker 2: eligible for retirement or disability. And finally, the last court category,
- 5:35Speaker 2: Social Security Supplemental Security Income Benefit also known as SSI
- 5:40Speaker 2: for short, provides monthly payments to people with disabilities and
- 5:44Speaker 2: older adults who have little or no income or resources.
- 5:50Speaker 2: So against think you know super low income disability, older
- 5:54Speaker 2: adults a little to no income or resources. So as
- 5:58Speaker 2: you can see, over the lifetime of an average American,
- 6:01Speaker 2: there are a multitude of ways that you could be
- 6:04Speaker 2: impacted by various types of Social Security benefits from things
- 6:07Speaker 2: like long term disabilities, or the death of a loved one,
- 6:11Speaker 2: or a divorce or a disabled child, et cetera, et cetera.
- 6:16Speaker 2: We understand that social Security can get a bad reputation,
- 6:19Speaker 2: and there can be good reasons for that number one,
- 6:22Speaker 2: as funding problems or how politicians use it, you know,
- 6:26Speaker 2: during debates, as a political leverage tour tool. However, at
- 6:30Speaker 2: its core, in our opinion, social Security is a modern
- 6:34Speaker 2: financial marvel that positively impacts the lives of tens of
- 6:38Speaker 2: millions of Americans and countless more it keeps countless more
- 6:43Speaker 2: out of extreme poverty. So, with all that being said,
- 6:48Speaker 2: for the remainder of our show today, we will be
- 6:50Speaker 2: primarily focusing on Social Security, family benefits, and survivor benefits.
- 6:55Speaker 2: So again I gave you kind of that fifty thousand
- 6:58Speaker 2: foot view. Now we're going to never throw down in
- 7:00Speaker 2: the five or ten thousand foot view on family benefits
- 7:03Speaker 2: and survivor benefits.
- 7:04Speaker 1: Love the rundown this morning, as we talk with CJ.
- 7:07Speaker 1: Closs and Eric Schwartz, our retirement planning professionals from Class
- 7:10Speaker 1: financial don't forget. You can learn more online the website
- 7:13Speaker 1: cossfinancial dot com. That's Klaasfinancial dot com. The telephone number
- 7:18Speaker 1: six oh eight four four two five six three seven.
- 7:21Speaker 1: No charge for that initial get to know you appointment
- 7:23Speaker 1: tech COLSS Financial. It will be complimentary to you again
- 7:26Speaker 1: their number six oh eight four four two five six
- 7:29Speaker 1: three seven. So, Eric, what should we know when it
- 7:31Speaker 1: comes to Social Security survivor benefits and how can that
- 7:35Speaker 1: have an impact on a former spouse.
- 7:39Speaker 4: That's a great question, Sean. And before we kind of
- 7:41Speaker 4: dive into that, I want to just highlight one of
- 7:43Speaker 4: the definitions cj diis referenced. That's the Social Security Administration
- 7:47Speaker 4: gives us for survivor benefits. Okay, So the Social Security
- 7:52Speaker 4: Survivor Benefit provides monthly payments to eligible family members of
- 7:56Speaker 4: people who worked and paid Social Security taxes before they die.
- 8:00Speaker 4: So who are those eligible family members? So Social Security
- 8:04Speaker 4: tells us that this can include spouses, divorced spouses, children,
- 8:09Speaker 4: or even a dependent parent. And while we'll be focusing
- 8:13Speaker 4: today on spouses and divorced ex spouses, it's important for
- 8:17Speaker 4: our listeners to realize there are a lot of other
- 8:20Speaker 4: individuals that could benefit from a Social Security benefit after
- 8:26Speaker 4: a loved one dies, So just keep that in mind.
- 8:29Speaker 4: We're going to dig in deeper here, just on those
- 8:31Speaker 4: benefits for spouses and divorced X spouses, So survivor benefits.
- 8:37Speaker 4: According to Social Security, you may be eligible for survivor
- 8:40Speaker 4: benefits if your current or divorced X spouse died and
- 8:45Speaker 4: you are age sixty year older or fifty to fifty nine,
- 8:50Speaker 4: if you have a disability and you were married for
- 8:53Speaker 4: at least nine months before your spouse's death and you
- 8:58Speaker 4: didn't remarry before age sixty or age fifty if you
- 9:01Speaker 4: have a disability. Now, whenever we talk about Social Security,
- 9:06Speaker 4: the content tends to get very very dense at times,
- 9:11Speaker 4: and there are a lot of different moving pieces, so
- 9:14Speaker 4: stick with us here. Ex Spouses who are married for
- 9:18Speaker 4: at least ten years, as well as some valid non
- 9:21Speaker 4: marital legal relationships may also be eligible. And then, beyond
- 9:25Speaker 4: the two broad categories, you may also be eligible regardless
- 9:29Speaker 4: of age and how long you were married. So one
- 9:31Speaker 4: common example of this is if you're caring for a
- 9:33Speaker 4: child of the person who has passed away. Now, of course,
- 9:37Speaker 4: if you are eligible for a Social Security survivor benefit,
- 9:40Speaker 4: as a current or divorced X spouse, or you were
- 9:43Speaker 4: part of a valid non marital legal relationship. The next
- 9:46Speaker 4: question becomes is what is the benefit, what's the amount,
- 9:50Speaker 4: what are you actually receiving. The answer is it could
- 9:53Speaker 4: provide you with a monthly payment based upon the work
- 9:56Speaker 4: history of the decendent, along with the potential for Medicare
- 10:00Speaker 4: benefits based on their work history. Of course, you have
- 10:02Speaker 4: to be sixty five for that. Based upon what I've
- 10:06Speaker 4: outlined here, if you think you may be eligible for
- 10:09Speaker 4: a survivor benefit, you should gather the decedent Social Security
- 10:13Speaker 4: number and do one of two things. Either call the
- 10:16Speaker 4: Social Security Administration or schedule a meeting at a local
- 10:20Speaker 4: Social Security office. Now, Social Security has actually a pretty
- 10:24Speaker 4: robust website these days. They're trying to get their information
- 10:28Speaker 4: available two folks directly, but in our experience, when it
- 10:34Speaker 4: comes to survivor benefits, there's little information that you can
- 10:38Speaker 4: find that relates directly to you by logging into your
- 10:43Speaker 4: Social Security web portal, So you really do have to
- 10:46Speaker 4: actually directly reach out to the administration and basically you're
- 10:50Speaker 4: going to provide the Social Security representative with the decedent
- 10:53Speaker 4: Social Security number. And then let them know why you
- 10:56Speaker 4: think you may be eligible for survivor benefits. One important
- 11:00Speaker 4: note about survivor benefits. If you begin receiving monthly benefits
- 11:04Speaker 4: and you are not yet full retirement age or FRA,
- 11:07Speaker 4: as we've talked about, you may have earning limits, right,
- 11:13Speaker 4: so they're not going to let you. In some cases,
- 11:17Speaker 4: if you're not yet at your full retirement age, which
- 11:19Speaker 4: is either sixty six or sixty seven or somewhere in between,
- 11:24Speaker 4: your survivor benefit amount could be reduced by the amount
- 11:27Speaker 4: that you earn or are anticipated to earn in a
- 11:30Speaker 4: year over the annual limit which they allow you to
- 11:33Speaker 4: earn twenty three four hundred dollars this year. Now, this
- 11:38Speaker 4: is a really complicated discussion, and we've simplified it here
- 11:42Speaker 4: quite a bit. But for current or divorced expouses of
- 11:47Speaker 4: a deceased individual, you should probably talk with someone at
- 11:50Speaker 4: the Social Security Administration just to determine eligibility, or at
- 11:56Speaker 4: least speak with the financial advisor and get some guidance
- 11:59Speaker 4: on all.
- 12:00Speaker 1: This great guide. It's some great information. As we talk
- 12:02Speaker 1: with our retirement planning professionals, Eric Schwartz and CJ. Closs,
- 12:05Speaker 1: of course they come to us from Class Financial website
- 12:07Speaker 1: Coss Financial dot com. That's clause k l a A
- 12:11Speaker 1: S Financial dot Com. They're telephone number six oh eight
- 12:14Speaker 1: four four two five six three seven. No charge for
- 12:17Speaker 1: that initial get to know your appointment tech co Loss Financial.
- 12:19Speaker 1: It will be complimentary to you again their number six
- 12:22Speaker 1: oh eight four four two five six three seven. We're
- 12:25Speaker 1: going to talk about Social Security family benefits. We'll get
- 12:28Speaker 1: the details with CJ. We'll also head on over to
- 12:30Speaker 1: the Money in Motion listener question corner and have the
- 12:33Speaker 1: Class Quiz question a week. All of that coming up
- 12:35Speaker 1: in Money and Motion with Class Financial right here on
- 12:38Speaker 1: thirteen ten WIB eight talking with our retirement planning professionals CJ.
- 12:44Speaker 1: Closs and Eric Schwartz. They come to us from Class
- 12:47Speaker 1: Financial the website coss Financial dot com. That's css k
- 12:51Speaker 1: l a A S Financial dot com. Telphy number for
- 12:54Speaker 1: the office right here in Madison, sixt oh eight four
- 12:56Speaker 1: four two five six three seven. Talking Social Secure this week,
- 13:01Speaker 1: and we started that last segment. We ended up talking
- 13:04Speaker 1: about survivor benefits and very very complicated and some really
- 13:09Speaker 1: good guidance there. If you missed any part of that
- 13:11Speaker 1: segment to want to listen back to this show or
- 13:13Speaker 1: previous shows Doorfgate. You can always listen and subscribe to
- 13:15Speaker 1: the podcast at class financial dot com. So, CJ, what
- 13:19Speaker 1: about social Security family benefits and what do we need
- 13:22Speaker 1: to know here? So and you know, kind of how
- 13:24Speaker 1: does that differ then from survivor benefits?
- 13:29Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 13:29Speaker 2: Good questions. So, you know, as as Eric kind of
- 13:31Speaker 2: ended his section there, the big encouragement here is like, whoa,
- 13:35Speaker 2: there's a there's a lot to this. You know, if
- 13:39Speaker 2: I'm a survivor or an ex house of somebody who
- 13:42Speaker 2: has passed away, I may be eligible for benefits. So
- 13:45Speaker 2: our biggest encouragement is just kind of keep your ears
- 13:49Speaker 2: open to what we're saying. And if you think this
- 13:50Speaker 2: might impact you, just talk to the Social Security Administration. Now,
- 13:53Speaker 2: even as I say that, I'm chuckling on the inside
- 13:55Speaker 2: a little bit. Just talk to the Socialcurity Administration.
- 13:58Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like your.
- 13:59Speaker 2: Neighbor, go over and chat with them and have a
- 14:00Speaker 2: nice Unfortunately, that's not the way it works with Social
- 14:03Speaker 2: Security Administration.
- 14:03Speaker 3: They get a lot of inbound calls.
- 14:05Speaker 2: There's almost seventy million recipients of Social Security, not to
- 14:08Speaker 2: mention three hundred million people paying into.
- 14:10Speaker 3: This thing or something like that.
- 14:12Speaker 2: So yes, it could take some time to get a
- 14:14Speaker 2: meeting set up, but just talk to them and see
- 14:16Speaker 2: if you're eligible. Now to your point, you know, we
- 14:19Speaker 2: kind of move on from survivor benefits and we talk
- 14:21Speaker 2: about family benefits, you know, and how do these things differ. So,
- 14:26Speaker 2: just like Eric did, I'm going to start with the definition. So,
- 14:30Speaker 2: the Social Security Family Benefit provides monthly payments to certain
- 14:34Speaker 2: family members of people who are eligible for retirement or
- 14:38Speaker 2: disability benefits. So again right away you can tell this
- 14:43Speaker 2: definition differs from the survivor of benefits Eric's just discussed
- 14:47Speaker 2: in that we are not referencing deceased, current or divorced
- 14:51Speaker 2: ex spouses in this definition. We are referencing benefits of
- 14:55Speaker 2: a living, current or divorced X spouse. It may be
- 15:00Speaker 2: eligible for family benefits if you are the spouse, divorce
- 15:03Speaker 2: ex spouse, or child of someone entitled to retirement or
- 15:06Speaker 2: disabilility benefits. We will be focusing on spouses and divorced
- 15:11Speaker 2: X spouses. Okay, so we're not focusing on all the
- 15:14Speaker 2: definitions of people who might be eligible for family benefits.
- 15:17Speaker 2: We're just focusing today on the spouses and divorced X spouses.
- 15:21Speaker 3: So let's dig a little deeper.
- 15:24Speaker 2: You may be eligible for family benefits if you have
- 15:27Speaker 2: been married for at least one year and are age
- 15:30Speaker 2: sixty two and older, or caring for a child age
- 15:34Speaker 2: fifteen and younger, or caring for a child of any
- 15:38Speaker 2: age who has a disability. I'm going to repeat that
- 15:42Speaker 2: you may be eligible for family benefits if you have
- 15:44Speaker 2: been married for at least one year and are age
- 15:47Speaker 2: sixty two and older, or caring for a child age
- 15:51Speaker 2: fifteen and younger, or caring for a child of any
- 15:54Speaker 2: age who has a disability. X X spouses who were
- 15:59Speaker 2: made married for at least ten years, as well as
- 16:02Speaker 2: some valid non marital legal relationships, may also be eligible.
- 16:07Speaker 2: So notice one important distinction between survivor benefits and family benefits.
- 16:12Speaker 2: In the case of survivor benefits, where you were the
- 16:14Speaker 2: spouse at the point of their death, you had to
- 16:17Speaker 2: be married for at least nine months before they died
- 16:19Speaker 2: and didn't rema and didn't remarry before age sixty to
- 16:22Speaker 2: be eligible for those benefits. However, in the case of
- 16:25Speaker 2: family benefits, where you are the current spouse, you must
- 16:29Speaker 2: have been married for at least one year.
- 16:31Speaker 3: To be eligible for these benefits.
- 16:33Speaker 2: I tell everybody this because there's quite a bit of
- 16:36Speaker 2: like interesting things floating around there. People go, wait, I
- 16:40Speaker 2: thought it was nine months. Other people go, no, wait,
- 16:42Speaker 2: I thought it was one year. And then other people, yeah,
- 16:43Speaker 2: go wait, I thought you had to be married for
- 16:45Speaker 2: ten years. And actually all of those are true, just
- 16:49Speaker 2: depending upon what type of benefit you're talking about. So
- 16:54Speaker 2: I know we're probably freaking you all out because there's
- 16:57Speaker 2: so much complexity here, But our hope is that you
- 17:00Speaker 2: here's something that says, hey, that could be me, and
- 17:03Speaker 2: then you start looking into it. So, similar to what
- 17:06Speaker 2: Eric referenced earlier, if you are eligible for a family
- 17:09Speaker 2: benefit as a current or divorced ex spouse or we're
- 17:12Speaker 2: part of a valid non merital legal relationship, you could
- 17:16Speaker 2: be eligible for a monthly payment based upon the work
- 17:19Speaker 2: history of the living current.
- 17:21Speaker 3: Spouse or divorced x spouse.
- 17:23Speaker 2: So if you think you may be eligible for a
- 17:24Speaker 2: family benefit, just like Eric mentioned before, you should do
- 17:27Speaker 2: one of a few things. Either call the Social Security
- 17:31Speaker 2: Administration to confirm your eligibility and ask questions, or schedule
- 17:35Speaker 2: a meeting at a local Social Security office or talk
- 17:38Speaker 2: with a financial advisor who can discuss the logistics of
- 17:41Speaker 2: your circumstances, and in any of these instances, you should
- 17:45Speaker 2: be prepared with some of the following basic information, your
- 17:49Speaker 2: Social Security number, your work history, your current in any
- 17:53Speaker 2: past marriages, and then name and details about your children.
- 17:57Speaker 1: A lot of great detail there. So we talked with CJ.
- 17:59Speaker 1: Class and Eric Schwartz. They are our retirement planning professionals
- 18:03Speaker 1: from Coss Financial. A lot of really important, great content
- 18:06Speaker 1: each and every week here on Money in Motion, including
- 18:08Speaker 1: this week with Coss Financial. Don't forget if you ever
- 18:11Speaker 1: missed part of the program, you can always listen back
- 18:13Speaker 1: at cossfinancial dot com. You can also sign up for
- 18:16Speaker 1: the weekly Market Pulse newsletter. It's a great weekly email.
- 18:19Speaker 1: It's got a snapshot of what's happening in the markets.
- 18:21Speaker 1: Also linked to the most recent podcasts that available to
- 18:23Speaker 1: you at Cossfinancial dot com. That's Klaas Financial dot com.
- 18:28Speaker 1: They're telfoed up for the office right here in Madison
- 18:30Speaker 1: six oh eight four four two five six three seven.
- 18:33Speaker 1: No charge for that initial gets know your appointment at
- 18:35Speaker 1: Loss Financial. It will be complimentary to you again their
- 18:38Speaker 1: number six oh eight four four two five, six three seven.
- 18:41Speaker 1: We're going to talk have a bit of a Rod
- 18:43Speaker 1: Tidwell Jerry Maguire moment in just a moment here on
- 18:46Speaker 1: thirteen ten wi BA. We'll do that next as Money
- 18:49Speaker 1: in Motion with COSS Financial continues right here thirteen ten
- 18:52Speaker 1: wib I talking with CJ. Kloss and Eric Schwartz. They
- 18:57Speaker 1: are our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, the website
- 19:00Speaker 1: class financial dot com. That's Coss k l a as
- 19:03Speaker 1: Financial dot com telph number six so eight four four
- 19:06Speaker 1: two five six three seven. An Oscar winning moment. I
- 19:10Speaker 1: and a lot of folks probably from Jerry Maguire. You
- 19:12Speaker 1: got Cuba Gooden Junior, as Rod didwell going back and
- 19:16Speaker 1: forth on the phone. Show me the money, Show me
- 19:17Speaker 1: the money. Let's talk about showing me the money. Kind
- 19:20Speaker 1: of a little serious though, Eric, how much could I
- 19:24Speaker 1: get then when it comes to monthly benefit if I'm
- 19:26Speaker 1: eligible for a survivor benefit or family benefit there.
- 19:32Speaker 4: Well, luckily, Sean, we don't get a whole lot of
- 19:35Speaker 4: Jerry Maguire moments in our meeting, but they are generally
- 19:38Speaker 4: asking us that same question, how much am I going
- 19:41Speaker 4: to get? The Social Security Administration uses a specific formula
- 19:46Speaker 4: calculate the amount of a survivor benefit or a family benefit,
- 19:50Speaker 4: and in general it's a percentage of the current or
- 19:54Speaker 4: former spouse's primary insurance amount. So we've talked about this
- 19:57Speaker 4: on the show before. Your primary insurance amount is the
- 20:00Speaker 4: benefit amount you would receive at your full retirement age.
- 20:04Speaker 4: They'll get an age between sixty six and sixty seven.
- 20:08Speaker 4: But the calculation is more complex, of course, and it's
- 20:12Speaker 4: impacted by several different factors, some of which include your age,
- 20:17Speaker 4: your current spouse's eligibility for benefits, your work history, the
- 20:22Speaker 4: year that your late spouse passed away, whether or not
- 20:25Speaker 4: you remarried, and at what age you do decide to remarry,
- 20:30Speaker 4: the number of eligible family members that you have, the
- 20:33Speaker 4: year you actually become eligible, and finally, the age that
- 20:37Speaker 4: you begin drawing your benefit. Okay, so I want to
- 20:41Speaker 4: just kind of pause here for a second. Unfortunately, CJ
- 20:45Speaker 4: and I have a lot of experience helping clients through
- 20:48Speaker 4: the process following the loss of a loved one, and
- 20:52Speaker 4: beyond all of the normal things you'd expect, you know,
- 20:56Speaker 4: grief and loss, we're trying to help them figure out
- 20:59Speaker 4: how to navigate the financial implications of this, and I
- 21:04Speaker 4: will say from my experience, especially in the case of
- 21:07Speaker 4: young families, but also you know, in most cases, the
- 21:11Speaker 4: Social Security survivor benefit tends to be one of the
- 21:15Speaker 4: I would say most surprising to clients and in many
- 21:18Speaker 4: ways impactful. I mean, we're potentially talking about thousands of
- 21:21Speaker 4: dollars a month here for a family that may have
- 21:25Speaker 4: just lost, you know, one of their income earners. So
- 21:28Speaker 4: we really really want to encourage people don't ignore this,
- 21:33Speaker 4: really really take the steps to investigate any benefits you
- 21:37Speaker 4: might be eligible for. Get in touch with the Social
- 21:39Speaker 4: Security Administration and figure out if there are benefits that
- 21:44Speaker 4: you are eligible for, not only from a deceased spouse,
- 21:47Speaker 4: but just a living former spouse as well.
- 21:50Speaker 1: Talking this morning with Eric Schwartz and CJ. Closs. They
- 21:52Speaker 1: are our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial online class
- 21:56Speaker 1: financial dot com. That's Class k l aasancial dot com.
- 22:00Speaker 1: While you're at the website, of course, you can learn
- 22:02Speaker 1: more about COSS Financial. You can learn more also if
- 22:04Speaker 1: you are a business owner and the different options and
- 22:07Speaker 1: different divisions at COSS Financial as well stuff for you
- 22:10Speaker 1: as an individual, all available at cossfinancial dot com. Also
- 22:14Speaker 1: While you're there, you can submit a question to be
- 22:15Speaker 1: answered right here on the program and our Money in
- 22:18Speaker 1: Motion listener question corner, and this week, Sue writes in
- 22:21Speaker 1: she says, I was married for twenty eight years. I
- 22:23Speaker 1: lost the love of my life and the father of
- 22:25Speaker 1: my three children to cancer at age fifty two. I'm
- 22:29Speaker 1: now fifty eight years old, with all my children out
- 22:32Speaker 1: of the house, and have been fortunate enough to meet
- 22:34Speaker 1: another great man who I would like to marry. However,
- 22:37Speaker 1: before we get married, I want to know if there's
- 22:40Speaker 1: anything I should consider relative to potential social security benefits.
- 22:45Speaker 1: That question from Sue CJ.
- 22:48Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 22:48Speaker 2: Well, first things first, thanks Sue for writing in this question,
- 22:52Speaker 2: because this one would be hard for me to answer
- 22:54Speaker 2: on the fly. I was thankful to have a little
- 22:56Speaker 2: bit of time to kind of look in into this one. However,
- 22:59Speaker 2: let me begin by saying, I'm really sorry. It sounds
- 23:03Speaker 2: like it's been a while since your late husband's passing,
- 23:06Speaker 2: but I can't imagine the heartache of losing a spouse
- 23:09Speaker 2: to cancer after bearing and raising children together.
- 23:13Speaker 3: So, yeah, what a mess.
- 23:15Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but your question is timely since we just
- 23:19Speaker 2: discussed soci security survivor benefits during our show today, so
- 23:22Speaker 2: some listeners may already know the answer to your questions
- 23:25Speaker 2: too based upon what we just discussed. So the answer
- 23:29Speaker 2: is yes, you may want to slow down and speak
- 23:32Speaker 2: with someone at the Social Security Administration and or your
- 23:35Speaker 2: financial advisor before getting remarried, depending upon the specifics of
- 23:41Speaker 2: your circumstances. If you remarry prior to reaching your age sixty,
- 23:46Speaker 2: you could lose access to Social Security survivor benefits also
- 23:49Speaker 2: known as widow's benefits by the way off your deceased
- 23:52Speaker 2: spouse's record. Now, truthfully, this may or may not be
- 23:56Speaker 2: very impactful to you, depending upon your current and future
- 23:59Speaker 2: projected circle ccumstances With the man that you mentioned, You
- 24:02Speaker 2: might want to marry, but it is worth slowing down
- 24:05Speaker 2: to ask some questions before you tie the knot, especially
- 24:08Speaker 2: given that I think you said you were fifty eight
- 24:10Speaker 2: years old and really marriages after sixty don't impact these
- 24:14Speaker 2: previous benefits. So yes, I guess what I'm trying to
- 24:18Speaker 2: say to you, Sue, is great question. We would actually
- 24:21Speaker 2: suggest pause, slow down before you get remarried. Here, talk
- 24:24Speaker 2: to Social Security Administration and just understand the implications. It
- 24:28Speaker 2: wouldn't surprise us if at the end of this little
- 24:31Speaker 2: research project that you come to find out that it's
- 24:34Speaker 2: not a huge impact and you're going to get remarried anyways,
- 24:36Speaker 2: but you would hate to There's no redos here, right,
- 24:40Speaker 2: You would hate to get married and then recognize that
- 24:42Speaker 2: you lost a significant benefit that could have helped you
- 24:45Speaker 2: and really the man you intend to marry.
- 24:47Speaker 1: Great question, Sue, and don't free. You can submit your
- 24:50Speaker 1: question if you could be like Sue, if you got one,
- 24:52Speaker 1: you always submitted at class financial dot com. You can
- 24:54Speaker 1: call in during the program, or even better, if you
- 24:57Speaker 1: call Class Financial's office here in Madison six four four
- 25:00Speaker 1: two five six three seven. That first appointment at COSS Financial,
- 25:04Speaker 1: it will be complimentary to you. You can get that
- 25:06Speaker 1: start that conversation again. All I get is pick up phone.
- 25:09Speaker 1: Give them a call six oh eight four four two
- 25:11Speaker 1: five six three seven. Speaking of that telephone number in
- 25:14Speaker 1: the Madison office. Time now for the Coss Quiz Question
- 25:17Speaker 1: the week. Your chance to win a fantastic prize this week,
- 25:20Speaker 1: a twenty five dollars gift card to pet Smart Class
- 25:23Speaker 1: Quiz Question Week. It works like this. In just a moment,
- 25:25Speaker 1: I'll ask you the class Quiz question the leak. You'll
- 25:26Speaker 1: then him thirty minutes to the end of the program
- 25:28Speaker 1: to call the Class Financial Office here in Madison at
- 25:30Speaker 1: six oh eight four four two five, six three seven
- 25:33Speaker 1: if you are the first car with correct answer to
- 25:35Speaker 1: win this week's prize again, the twenty five dollars gift
- 25:37Speaker 1: card to pet Smart. This week's class quiz question the
- 25:41Speaker 1: week is this true or false? You may be eligible
- 25:45Speaker 1: for a Social Security survivor benefit as a spouse if
- 25:49Speaker 1: you were married for at least nine month months before
- 25:53Speaker 1: their death. True or false? Telephone number six oh eight
- 25:57Speaker 1: four four two five six three seven. First call correct
- 26:00Speaker 1: answer one. That's twenty five dollars gift card to pet Smart.
- 26:02Speaker 1: And don't forget that's Class Financials Office right here in Madison,
- 26:06Speaker 1: that number six oh eight four four two five, six
- 26:09Speaker 1: three seven. CJ.
- 26:10Speaker 3: Eric.
- 26:11Speaker 1: It's always great chatting with both of you, you guys,
- 26:13Speaker 1: enjoy this great Dan and we'll do it all again
- 26:14Speaker 1: real soon. Thanks Sean, Thanks Sean, see you guys, and
- 26:18Speaker 1: doctor Marty Greer she comes your way next here on
- 26:20Speaker 1: thirteen ten w IB eight