Before you make that trip to the Social Security office, or file for your benefit online, please make sure you have researched all your choices and have answered the following questions:

1. At what age should I file for benefits?
2. At what age should my spouse file for benefits?
3. By coordinating our decision, will we see a greater gain?
4. When does it make sense to claim a spousal benefit?
5. How can I claim my benefit, still work, and let my benefit grow?
6. How do I make sure my spouse gets the largest survivor benefit?
7. How do we know which of the filing methods might be right for us? Straight, Restricted or File and Suspend?
8. If one of us lives a long life, how does that affect our decision?
9. How will work affect my benefit?
10. If I am divorced, having been married 10 years and currently single, what are my options?
11. If I have a government pension, how will that affect when I file and how will it affect the survivor benefit?
12. What about any tax consequences?These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered, but a great place to start.  Unfortunately, most people don’t have many of these questions answered, yet decide to file for their benefit.  Why?  Usually, because they don’t know where to get their answers and it is overwhelming.We are not pointing fingers, because we were right where you are when looking at our retirement decisions.  We are not ready to retire yet, but close, and wanted to get our ducks all in a row.  We went to advisors, seminars, to the Social Security office and still felt we didn’t know much more than when we started.  That is when we became National Social Security Advisors, taking on those 2,700 rules and regulations and trying to advise people getting close to retirement.

    Hopefully through reading some of our articles, and understanding the need for a customized report, our community is realizing the need for more in depth research on this topic before making their decision.  If interested, we are hosting a seminar at the Brandon Public Library on September 29, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. titled “What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You”.  It should last about an hour with additional time for questions and answers.  Please join us and see if we can clear up some of that muddy water…

    We are pleased to announce that our website is up and complete.  Please take a minute to look at it and we would welcome any comments or suggestions.  www.pillarsllc.com  See you at the Library…..or call us for an appointment at 601-954-0699.