The Benefits Blog

Have a prospect whose wife has a green card. She is from Japan and has maintained her citizenship.  When he files for Soc Sec benefits, will she be eligible for a spousal benefit on his record?  I do not know if her green card, and maintaining her Japanese citizenship is an issue?

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I have a client who is 62 and thinking of retiring and taking Social Security.  Her husband is 74 and waited until 70 to collect his retirement benefits.  They want to maximize her SS when he passes away.

She has worked and earned enough credits to collect off her own record at...

Here is the situation. Dad murdered his wife, and he went to jail and is now out. They have a 4-year-old and the court gave full custody not to the grandparents but to the Great Grandparents. Dad is disabled. Would the great grandparents be entitled to In Care benefits and the child entitled to...

I had a gentleman in a class yesterday with this scenario that I want to confirm with you. He is age 62 and will be 63 in Oct – Birthdate is 10/13/1960. He was married for 15 years and has been divorced 3 years. Neither ex-spouse is remarried. Ex-spouse birthday is 06/27/1973. They have...

It’s good to have some social security support for our client base and you guys certainly seem to know the stuff.  I wanted to reach out about a client situation.  The client is younger, but their father passed away years ago (dad was more than 10 years older than mom) and mom is...

At the NSSA® Certificate program, we emphasize Situational Social Security because every client is unique. Your clients may be single, married with wide or narrow age differences, divorced, surviving spouses, eligible to file a Restricted Application, or public employees. As a trusted...

Chloe worked for the state and gets PERA.  Her Social Security report says she would get $746/mo benefit at age 62.   John will get $,2011/mo at age 62.  When we run Social Security Timing, the suggested timing is for John to take his social security at age 70 and Chloe as...

I have a question for you. As you know, my Social Security payments are starting this month (about $3,500/month).  I am considering retiring from my job with the county and being re-hired, hopefully at the same rate I make now, about $85,000/year. If I am re-hired, would that affect the...

We have a client who filed for SSDI and is waiting on the application.  I wasn’t sure, but she can file for retirement benefits while waiting correct?  And then if she’s approved, they will bump her up to the higher SSDI benefit, correct?

Yes, a client who is age 62 or older...

I have a client, Larry, looking to retire this August at age 65 and will earn 50K in 2023.  If he files for his own benefits Dec 2023 age 65.4 and gets his first check in Jan 2024, will he be subject to the earnings test for the Dec amount being that the first check doesn’t come until...