Ask Liz Weston

Get smart with your money

Q&A

Q&A: Deciding on when to take Social Security

By

Dear Liz: My ex-husband is 13 years younger than I. We were married for 10 years and he earns more than I do. If I start drawing my own Social Security benefit at age 70, can I switch to his benefit when I’m 75 and he is 62?

Answer: Normally when someone applies for Social Security, they’re “deemed” or assumed to be applying for all the benefits for which they’re eligible. If you’re eligible for your own retirement benefit as well as a divorced spousal benefit, for example, you would get the larger of the two amounts. You wouldn’t be able to switch from one to the other later.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, however, and your situation is one of them. You won’t be eligible for a divorced spousal benefit until your ex-husband reaches minimum retirement age (62). At that point, you would be eligible for 50% of his primary insurance amount, or the check he would get at his full retirement age, which is currently between 66 and 67. If that amount is larger than what you’re receiving, you could switch.

If you’re going to switch, though, you may not want to wait until 70 to apply for your own benefit. Delaying makes sense for most people, because they’ll live past the break-even age in their late 70s when the larger value of the delayed benefit more than makes up for the smaller checks they pass up in the meantime. If you switch at 75, though, you won’t have received your own benefits for long enough to make up for bypassing the smaller checks, says Dr. William Reichenstein, head of research at Social Security Solutions.

Deciding when to start Social Security can be tricky even in simpler situations than yours, so consider using a site such as Social Security Solutions or Maximize My Social Security for advice on when to claim.

Q&A: Inherited IRA taxes

By

Dear Liz: I have about $16,000 in a Roth IRA that I plan to leave to my daughter. When she collects this on my death, does she pay tax on the withdrawals?

Answer: No. She would have to pay taxes on withdrawals if the money were in a regular inherited IRA, but not if the money is in a Roth. She will be required to withdraw the money within 10 years, though. Congress eliminated the so-called “stretch IRA” for most inheritors, so non-spouse beneficiaries can no longer stretch withdrawals over their own lifetimes.

Q&A: Here’s what you should do about suspicious credit report activity

By

Dear Liz: I recently obtained copies of my credit reports from the three major credit bureaus and discovered my brother’s home address listed in the personal information section. I am extremely concerned about how and why this happened since I have never lived with my brother. This brother is the executor of our father’s estate, and the address listing was dated just before the distribution of that estate. What possible reason could my brother have for searching my credit background? I have zero communication with him because of an ongoing feud. He ignores any requests or inquiries. After I discovered this, I asked the bureaus to remove the address and put security freezes on all three credit reports, which I probably should have done sooner.

Answer: Your brother’s address wouldn’t show up in your credit reports in the unlikely event he had checked your credit. It might show up there if he had committed identity theft using your information, but if nothing else was amiss — you didn’t spot a credit account or loan you didn’t recognize, for example — then most likely the error was made by a creditor or other company that reports information to the credit bureaus.

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act limits who can access your credit reports. Only businesses with a legitimate need to know the information can do so, and often your permission is required. You can check who has accessed your credit during the last two years in the “inquiries” section of your credit reports.

You may never discover exactly how your brother’s address wound up in your file, but you took the right steps in disputing the error and in freezing your credit reports.

For readers not as credit-report savvy: You can access your reports for free at AnnualCreditReport.com. But be careful; lots of sites want to sell you your reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. If you’re asked for a credit card number, you’re on the wrong site.

When you get your reports, look for accounts that aren’t yours and other suspicious activity. Consider freezing your credit reports at each of the bureaus to prevent someone from opening new accounts in your name. You can thaw the freeze whenever you need credit, also for free.

Q&A: Consider taxes before retirement

By

Dear Liz: I began converting two 401(k)s from previous employers to Roth IRAs. To lessen the huge tax hit, I decided to do the conversions over the course of seven years. Even with that, the tax hit is higher than I realized and too painful. Now that partial conversions have begun annually, am I required to complete the total conversion to 100%? Or can I stop midway and leave the remainder in the original accounts? Also, is there an age limit before which Roth conversions must be completed?

Answer: You don’t have to continue making conversions. (Before 2018, you could have even reversed conversions you already made, but that’s no longer possible.) There’s also no age limit for conversions, but the older you get, the less likely conversions are to make financial sense.

Conversions are a good bet if you expect to be in the same or a higher tax bracket in retirement. If you’re young and in a low tax bracket now, you can reasonably expect that to be the case.

As you approach retirement, though, the opposite may be true. Many people find their tax bracket drops once they retire. Why pay a big tax bill now if you can access the money at a lower tax rate later?

Then again, if you’re a good saver, you may discover you’ve accumulated so much that your tax bill will soar once you’re required to start taking minimum distributions at age 72. If that’s the case, then converting some of your retirement money might save you on taxes overall.

But you’ll want to discuss this with a tax pro or financial planner who can model how the conversions are likely to affect your overall finances, including any Medicare premiums, since those can increase with income.

Q&A: IRS changes on required withdrawals

By

Dear Liz: When informing me of my required minimum distribution for 2022, my brokerage has apparently used a distribution period that differs from the one used in past years. This results in a distribution amount that’s noticeably smaller. I recall there was some talk of revising the IRS tables, but has this been done?

Answer: Yes. The IRS has updated the life expectancy tables used to calculate how much people must withdraw from their retirement accounts to reflect longer lifespans. That’s good news for people who withdraw only the minimums each year, since their required distributions will be smaller and the rest of their balances can continue to grow tax deferred.

Q&A: Starting Social Security too early

By

Dear Liz: Does the Social Security Administration still allow a person to start taking Social Security benefits at age 62 and then later return the full amount received and begin taking the higher delayed benefits? For people who don’t need the income, this seems like a smart strategy as they could obtain the investment income on the benefits received from age 62 to 70 as well as the higher benefits amount starting at age 70.

Answer: Social Security closed that particular loophole in 2010.

As you know, Social Security retirement benefits increase each year you put off applying between age 62 and age 70, when benefits max out. An early start typically means a permanently reduced benefit.

Before 2010, people who started early, but who were able to repay all the money they received, were allowed to restart benefits at an older age and claim the larger checks as if they’d never applied before. This do-over prompted some recipients to apply early, invest the money and enjoy a kind of interest-free loan from the government.

People who make the mistake of starting Social Security too early still have a couple of options. They can withdraw their application for benefits within 12 months, but they are required to repay any benefits received, including benefits received by family members such as spousal or child benefits.

Another option is to wait until their full retirement age, which is currently between 66 and 67, and simply suspend their benefit.

No money has to be paid back and the recipient receives the delayed retirement credits that increase their benefits by 8% for each year they delay. Benefits will be automatically restarted at age 70, although the recipient can start them earlier, if desired.