On the bookshelf by my desk at work is Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security by Philp Moeller, Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Paul Solman. The 324 (!)-page book by a financial writer, an economist and the PBS NewsHour economics correspondent delivers on its promise to help people figure out the best strategy for when to claim Social Security. No criticism of the authors intended, but their book highlights a major problem with Social Security: It’s too complex!
The rules for claiming Social Security retirement benefits have become so complicated that it’s practically impossible for the typical near-retiree to navigate the system intelligently. Get this: The Social Security handbook has nearly 3,000 rules.
When to Claim Social Security: A Theme for Retirement Researchers
Social Security’s complexity was a key theme of the Retirement Research Consortium annual meeting I attended in Washington D.C. last month. The concern at the conference was that the tangled rules are keeping many people — especially couples — from getting the most out of the Social Security benefits they earned. In recent years, researchers have shown that married couples can face several thousand possible when-to-claim combinations.
Let me tell you about the results from the paper presented at the conference, “Social Security Household Benefits: Measuring Program Knowledge.” Economists Katherine Carman and Angela A. Hung of the Rand Corporation created a survey on Social Security spousal and survivor benefits to learn more about these three issues:
The rules for claiming Social Security retirement benefits have become so complicated that it’s practically impossible for the typical near-retiree to navigate the system intelligently. Get this: The Social Security handbook has nearly 3,000 rules.
When to Claim Social Security: A Theme for Retirement Researchers
Social Security’s complexity was a key theme of the Retirement Research Consortium annual meeting I attended in Washington D.C. last month. The concern at the conference was that the tangled rules are keeping many people — especially couples — from getting the most out of the Social Security benefits they earned. In recent years, researchers have shown that married couples can face several thousand possible when-to-claim combinations.
Let me tell you about the results from the paper presented at the conference, “Social Security Household Benefits: Measuring Program Knowledge.” Economists Katherine Carman and Angela A. Hung of the Rand Corporation created a survey on Social Security spousal and survivor benefits to learn more about these three issues:
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