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Information provided on this page is informational only. Nothing posted here should be considered investment advice. Please review your financial situation with a qualified financial professional before taking action. For more information please see our disclosure.

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Big Social Security Jump in 2023 — How This Impacts Retiree Tax Planning

One topic that has continually come up this year is inflation. Even though the Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates, so far, doing so has not produced much of an impact on this painfully persistent rise in prices. Inflation has been challenging for working individuals, but it has been especially burdensome for many retirees who live off a fixed income. One of the primary sources of income for many retirees is Social Security. A major benefit of Social Security compared to many other pensions is that it comes with a built-in yearly cost-of-living adjustment. This is one of the main reasons why we are generally proponents of delaying Social Security as long as possible—to the maximum of age 70. This is because the increased benefit for delaying is included in the inflation adjustment when it is calculated.

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Social Security Scams

Social Security numbers are the gateway to identity theft, and fraudsters and scammers try to use scare tactics on unwitting individuals to get them to disclose their Social Security numbers or pay money for a Social Security-related scam. The Federal Trade Commission received reports of more than $174 million lost to government imposter scams in 2020. The bottom line is that the Social Security Administration (SSA) will never contact you by phone, text, or email with any problems related to your Social Security account. Do not give scammers money or personal information. Just ignore them!

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Financial Planning for Unmarried Couples

Financial and tax planning advice is relatively easy to find online for married couples and single individuals. However, according to the U.S. census, about 8% of adults live with an unmarried partner. When you are living with a long-term partner, you may think of yourself as married for most purposes, but the law treats you very differently than it does a married couple. It is important to understand these differences, as they can have a dramatic impact on your lifetime taxes paid. It used to be that if you were LGBTQ+ and in a relationship, you were going to be an unmarried couple, as the federal government did not recognize same-sex marriage. This all changed in 2015, when gay marriage was made legal by a Supreme Court decision. However, many LGBTQ+ couples were long disgusted by the lack of marriage equity and chose to remain unmarried even after the court decision. This means there are still many unmarried LGBTQ+ couples.

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Financial Planning for your 60s - What to Consider

Financial planning, and the considerations involved, vary greatly depending on where you are in life. A typical benchmark for what life events you may be experiencing is your age. While there will clearly be overlaps from decade to decade, there are some unique circumstances that certain age groups will experience. In this series, we will review some of the common financial planning topics during many decades of life. We thought a good place to start would be financial planning considerations for someone in their 60s. Some common questions for those in this age group include: -When to go on Medicare, and what plan to choose? -When to take Social Security? -What will your taxes look like in retirement? -What will you do with your time?

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Social Security Retirement Payments at the Death of a Spouse

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is generally an extremely difficult entity to communicate with, especially around the death of a spouse. Family members may have a difficult time making sense of how the SSA handles the final payments of retirement benefits and death benefits, especially if they get conflicting information from letters received by the SSA after the spouse’s death.

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Financial Planning Considerations During COVID-19

Health and finances are likely the only two topics on most people's minds these days. How can you keep yourself and your loved ones safe and healthy through this pandemic? And what should you do with your investments during this recent market drop? Managing your investments prudently and resisting the urge to sell stocks while the market is down are certainly important financial planning considerations. However, as financial advisors, we wanted to highlight other crucial financial planning areas that often don't get as much attention in the news media.

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Think You Lost An Old Financial Account? Where You Might Be Able To Find It

In today's world, an individual's personal finances are ever changing and throughout each of our lifetimes we will have dozens of financial accounts. Think about how many times you may have changed banks, insurance companies, retirement plans, etc. Sometimes we create new accounts and forget about the old ones. Trying to track down old accounts doesn't have to be a nightmare because the internet makes it easier than ever to try and track down old accounts.

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To Delay, or Not To Delay. That is the Question

For most people, from the time they begin work they also start paying Social Security taxes. For many, the time to collect comes up faster than they think, and they are forced to answer the question, when do I collect? As financial advisors this is a question we help our clients with on a regular basis. We hope to give you some thoughts on the age-old question, to delay, or not to delay.

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