January 11, 2021 By

Q&A: For Social Security benefits, playing a waiting game really pays off

Dear Liz: My wife and I are both 63. She recently applied for Social Security. I will apply for mine when I am 70, at which time she will apply for a spousal payment, which will be half of mine. Last night as I was in bed I thought, “What if I die before 70?” Can she still wait until what would be my 70th year to collect my maximum benefit?

Answer: Your wife will get a larger survivor benefit because you delayed. If you die after she reaches 66 years and two months, however, she won’t get a larger check by waiting.

Social Security rules can be mind-numbingly complicated, and they’re different for different types of benefits, so this will take some explaining.

The three types of benefits that matter for this discussion are retirement benefits, which are based on your own earnings record; spousal benefits, which are based on a spouse’s earnings record while both partners are alive; and survivor benefits, which are based on a spouse’s earnings record after his or her death.

These benefits may be reduced if you start them before your “full retirement age,” which is different for survivor benefits than for retirement and spousal benefits, said William Meyer, founder of Social Security Solutions, a claiming-strategies site.

If your wife was born in 1957, then her full retirement age for retirement or spousal benefits is 66 years and 6 months. For survivor benefits, it’s 66 years and 2 months.

The full retirement age for retirement and spousal benefits is 66 for those born between 1943 and 1954. People born between 1955 and 1959 have full retirement ages ranging from 66 and 2 months to 66 and 10 months. Those born in 1960 and later have a full retirement age for retirement benefits of 67.

With survivor benefits, the schedule is pushed back two years. Survivors born between 1945 and 1956 have a full retirement age of 66. Survivors born from 1957 to 1961 have full retirement ages ranging from 66 and 2 months to 66 and 10 months. Survivors born in 1962 and later have full retirement ages of 67.

The reason you’re waiting to start retirement benefits until 70 is probably because you know your benefit will increase 8% for each year you delay between your own full retirement age and 70, when retirement benefits max out. The 8% per year increases are called delayed retirement credits. As you likely know, delaying is particularly important for the higher earner in a couple because that benefit determines what the survivor gets.

If you start retirement benefits before your full retirement age, your wife’s survivor benefit will be based on what you would have gotten at your full retirement age. If you delay your retirement benefits beyond your full retirement age, your wife’s survivor benefit will reflect any delayed retirement credits you have earned.

Your retirement benefit doesn’t earn delayed retirement credits after you’re dead, however. And your wife won’t earn delayed retirement credits on her survivor benefit. Once she reaches her full retirement age for survivor benefits, there’s no point in further delaying her switch from her retirement benefit to her survivor benefit.

Delayed retirement credits also don’t apply to spousal benefits. Her maximum spousal benefit would be half of your benefit amount as of your full retirement age. Because she started her own benefit early, however, her spousal benefit would be reduced.

The penalties for starting early are significant enough that it’s usually best to wait, and your wife may still have a “do over” option. If it’s been less than 12 months since she applied for benefits, she can repay any benefits she received and withdraw her application. That will undo her previous claiming decision and allow her benefit to keep growing. The claiming calculators and experts at Social Security Solutions and Maximize My Social Security can help you determine if that might be the best course.

Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the “Contact” form at asklizweston.com.

Filed Under: Q&A, Social Security Tagged With: ,
January 4, 2021 By

Q&A: When your spouse dies, there are immediate financial steps to take. Here’s a checklist

Dear Liz: What financial steps need to be taken right after your spouse dies?

Answer: Your attorney or accountant may have detailed checklists to guide you through the many tasks involved. In general, though, you’ll be settling the estate, notifying appropriate parties, signing up for any benefits and shutting down potential identity theft.

To start:

Get 10 to 12 certified copies of the death certificate (ask the funeral home for these).
Find any estate planning documents, such as a will or a living trust, to start the process of settling the estate. That may require opening a probate case at the county courthouse.
If you don’t already have an estate planning or probate attorney, consider hiring one for help.
Contact your spouse’s employer about any life insurance or retirement benefits, such as a 401(k) or pension.
File a claim if your spouse had life insurance.
Call Social Security at (800) 772-1213 to ask about survivor benefits. If you and your spouse were already receiving Social Security benefits, one payment ends at your spouse’s death, and you’ll get the larger of the two checks from now on.
If your spouse served in the military, contact the Veterans Administration to inquire about additional benefits.
Cancel your spouse’s health insurance.
Contact banks, brokerages, lenders and credit card companies to inform them of the death and close accounts or transfer them to your name alone.
Notify the three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
Delete or memorialize social media accounts.
There are a few things to avoid as well. A big one: Don’t give away money or assets prematurely. These may be needed to settle the estate or you may want more time to make good decisions. If you’re getting pressure from family members or anyone else, refer them to your attorney.

Be careful about making big changes, such as moving or selling a home, in the next year or so because grief can impair your decision-making abilities.

Don’t try to do all this yourself. Let the attorney assist with estate-settling tasks and hire a tax pro to file your spouse’s final tax return. Also, consider talking to a fee-only financial planner. You may have options for payouts from retirement accounts, life insurance and Social Security, for example, and your choices could dramatically affect your future standard of living.

Filed Under: Banking, Estate planning, Q&A Tagged With: , ,
January 4, 2021 By

Q&A: How to freeze your credit

Dear Liz: A few months ago you mentioned creating credit freezes that can be simply turned on and off at the customer’s convenience at no cost. However, you didn’t leave a website or an avenue to pursue a credit freeze with all three credit bureaus. Please provide more information on the steps in this process to achieve a credit freeze. It sounds like something I would like to try.

Answer: A credit freeze restricts access to your credit report and can be a good way to deter new account fraud. If someone tries to open a new account in your name, the lender won’t be able to pull your credit and thus is unlikely to approve the application.

Credit freezes do not affect your ability to use your credit cards or other credit accounts. You can temporarily thaw or lift the freeze any time you want to apply for credit. Placing, lifting and removing credit freezes is now free.

Experian’s credit freeze center can be found at https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html.

Equifax’s is at https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/.

You’ll find TransUnion’s version at https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze.

Just be sure to follow the instructions carefully and keep track of any personal identification numbers or passwords.

Filed Under: Credit & Debt, Q&A Tagged With: ,
January 4, 2021 By

Q&A: It’s not too late for Mom’s stocks

Dear Liz: My mother is 68. She has had a sizable amount of money in an old work 401(k) for several years now. Unfortunately, it has been stuck in the most conservative low-growth fund for more than 10 years during a time of great stock market growth. If she changed it to a more aggressive fund now, are there tax implications to consider, and would this be an unwise change at her age?

Answer: Ouch. The stock market as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 benchmark rose more than 250% in the last decade. Instead of more than tripling her money, her low-growth fund may have barely kept up with inflation.

She can’t get back those lost returns, but she could allocate her money more aggressively without having to worry about triggering taxes. Money in 401(k)s and most other retirement accounts is taxed only when it’s withdrawn.

Filed Under: Investing, Q&A Tagged With: , ,
December 28, 2020 By

Q&A: The perils of procrastination can be huge where finances are concerned

Dear Liz: My husband was killed in 2016 and was self-employed for the last three years of his life. I hadn’t gotten around to filing his taxes until earlier this year in June. At first the Social Security rep told me we were approved for survivor benefits but within the hour changed her decision. She said that since it’s been more than three years, the IRS won’t report his credits to Social Security and that is what ultimately disqualifies my children and me. I’m so confused and feel like my stomach just dropped to the floor.

Answer: Understandably. This appears to be one of those awful cases where putting something off has profound, irreversible consequences.

Survivor benefits are monthly checks paid to a worker’s minor children, typically until they turn 18. Surviving spouses normally can start benefits at age 60, but they can start at any age if they’re caring for the worker’s minor children. In that case, the caretaking spouse qualifies for benefits until the youngest child turns 16.

Limits vary, but what a family can receive is generally equal to between 150% and 180% of the worker’s basic benefit. The average survivor benefit for children is more than $800 a month, and the average for a caretaking mother or father is over $900 a month.

No worker needs more than 40 credits, which requires 10 years of work, to qualify a family for survivor benefits. The number of credits varies by age, so younger people need fewer credits.

Even if your husband didn’t have the required number of credits for his age, survivor benefits could have been paid if he had worked for at least 18 months in the previous three years.

But there is a deadline for self-employed taxpayers to have their incomes counted toward Social Security credits, which they do by filing their federal tax returns. The deadline is three years, three months and 15 days after the end of the calendar year in which the income is earned, said economist and Social Security expert Laurence Kotlikoff of MaximizeMySocialSecurity.com.

The deadline for reporting your husband’s 2016 income passed in March, while the deadlines for his 2014 and 2015 income passed in March 2018 and March 2019, respectively.

Appeal the decision because it’s possible that your husband earned enough other credits to qualify your family for benefits even without his last few years of work. But steel yourself for the likelihood that you’ve lost thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of dollars of potential benefits.

Filed Under: Estate planning, Q&A, Social Security Tagged With: , ,
December 28, 2020 By

Q&A: U.S. is best when picking a trustee

Dear Liz: My wife and I have a revocable living trust and we would like to change our primary successor trustee to someone who lives in the United Kingdom. The new trustee is not related to us nor is he a U.S. citizen. Can this be done and would our trust then become a foreign trust subject to a lot of U.S. taxes? How can we avoid this becoming a foreign trust?

Answer: Please rethink your plan, and not just for the reason you suggest.

Naming a foreign trustee very well may change the trust to a foreign trust for federal or state tax purposes when you die, said Jennifer Sawday, an estate planning attorney in Long Beach.

But settling an estate is difficult enough when the successor trustee lives nearby. Trying to manage the process from another country could qualify as cruel and unusual punishment.

If you really don’t have someone in the U.S. whom you trust, consider hiring a professional trustee. Some banks offer trust administration or settlement services as well as other fiduciary services, Sawday said. A licensed professional fiduciary could handle this role as well. Your estate planning attorney should be able to give you some referrals.

Hiring someone could cost more than naming a friend or family member, but often the money is well spent, Sawday said, because the professional is familiar with the work and is efficient compared to a layperson who may serve as a trustee once in a lifetime.

Filed Under: Estate planning, Q&A Tagged With: , ,
December 21, 2020 By

Q&A: Investing can be scary. How to overcome your anxiety

Dear Liz: I’m 53 and a debt-free homeowner. I’m employed but don’t have a 401(k) and have only about $80,000 in savings. I realize I need to put that money to work somewhere but I just freeze when it comes to trusting myself or someone else to handle it. Markets lately scare me to death, as do fraudulent or self-serving money managers. But as time ticks away, I develop more and more anxiety about it. What would you suggest?

Answer: Many worthwhile endeavors are scary, and you haven’t got a moment to lose.

You don’t have to make yourself an investing expert. You do need to understand enough about how the markets work that you don’t panic at the first downturn and yank your money out. Consider reading a good book about investing, such as “Investing for Dummies” by Eric Tyson, “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing” by John Bogle or “The Broke Millennial Takes On Investing” by Erin Lowry.

While you can’t control the markets, you can control what’s much more important in the long run: how much you invest and how much you pay in fees. Try to maximize the former and minimize the latter. Consider opening an individual retirement account and contributing the maximum $7,000. (The usual limit is $6,000 per year but people 50 and older can contribute an additional $1,000.)

A discount brokerage, such as Vanguard, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, ETrade or Charles Schwab, will have low-cost target date retirement funds that do the heavy lifting for you, such as choosing investments, rebalancing and getting more conservative as your retirement date approaches.

If you still want help with investing, seek out an advisor willing to be a fiduciary, which means they’re committed to putting your best interests first.

Filed Under: Investing, Q&A Tagged With: ,
December 21, 2020 By

Q&A: Weighing portfolio rebalancing costs

Dear Liz: I constantly read about the need to “rebalance” portfolios each year or more often to make sure you have a specific distribution of stocks, bonds and cash. However, selling stocks can create capital gains that will be taxed. An advisor rebalanced my portfolio and the result for me was an increase in capital gains taxes and an increase in my Medicare premiums. The extra taxes and costs to me seem to outweigh the benefit of hitting an exact asset target. Can extra taxes and Medicare costs be avoided while rebalancing?

Answer: Most of the advice about rebalancing is focused on people whose primary savings are in retirement accounts, where capital gains aren’t taxed.

Outside of retirement accounts, the costs of rebalancing must be weighed carefully. There often are ways to minimize capital gains taxes, such as selling losing stocks to offset winners, but in many cases the rebalancing should be done slowly, over time, to manage the fallout.

If your advisor didn’t discuss the tax and Medicare implications with you before taking this action, then it’s time to find another advisor.

Filed Under: Financial Advisors, Q&A Tagged With: ,
December 21, 2020 By

Q&A: What to do with sudden savings

Dear Liz: A few months ago we took out a jumbo loan on our residence, using the excess to pay off the mortgage on an investment property. The interest savings is substantial and our monthly payment is much less than the combined two payments we had before. We never had any problem making the two payments. Is it a good idea to put the monthly savings toward the principal? Our daughter will inherit the residence and all our income-producing properties. She has a sporadic employment history and I’m concerned she would not qualify to assume the jumbo loan if she wants to keep the residence.

Answer: Most people have better uses for their money than paying down a low-rate, potentially tax deductible debt. Your case may be one of the exceptions, or it may not.

The first step may be to ask whether she’s planning to keep the home. If she isn’t, then you needn’t worry about the loan — it will be paid off when she sells the property.

If she is planning to keep it, she could sell one or more of the other properties to pay off the loan. (These sales typically wouldn’t generate much if any taxable gains, since the properties get new fair market values when she inherits them.)

If you want to avoid her having to sell anything, then making extra principal payments can be a good plan as long as you don’t have any other debt and have an adequate emergency fund. You may want to consider a backup plan in case you die before the loan is paid off, such as a term life insurance policy (assuming you can qualify).

Filed Under: Q&A Tagged With: ,
December 14, 2020 By

Q&A: Tax consequences of giving versus bequeathing

Dear Liz: Someone who expects to be an executor recently wrote to you about a plan to distribute individual pieces of art to family members. Your response addressed the executor’s responsibility to determine the art’s worth before doing so. You also suggested having the parent designate what was to go to whom. What would the consequences be of the parent giving the pieces of art to the intended recipient prior to death? My mother did both; i.e., gave some to me and some to my sister prior to her death, and designated others to be distributed following her death. She had personal rather than financial reasons for doing it this way.

Answer: Let’s say your mom bought a painting from a struggling artist for $500. Later, the artist became famous and the painting’s value rose to $500,000. If she gave you the painting and you sold it, you would have to use the amount she paid — her basis — to determine the taxable profit ($499,500).

If she bequeathed the painting to you instead, the artwork would get a new tax basis which is usually its value on the day she died. You could sell the painting for $500,000 and not owe a dime in taxes.

Few people have artworks that experience that kind of appreciation — or any appreciation, for that matter. The issue of basis most often comes up when people are transferring real estate, stocks or other assets in transactions that are reported to the IRS. If your mom did have valuable works, though, transferring them through bequests could be advisable.

Filed Under: Inheritance, Q&A, Taxes Tagged With: , , ,