Survivors Benefits ONLY What You Need To Know

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Biblical Wealth Solutions

Keywords:

Social Security,Retirement,Planning,Investing,Investments,Tax,Taxes,Income,Getting Ready,survivors,deceased,spouse,passed away,died,survivors benefits,widow,widowed,tn,tri cities,johnson city

Subtitles:

hi Jared Williams here with easy-to-understand retirement in this video we're discussing only what you need to know about Social Security survivors benefits so again if you're married widowed or divorced this is definitely for you keep watching [Music] first there is a difference between spousal and survivors benefits and a lot of times people get these confused spousal benefits are for non-working or sometimes just lower earning spouse Asst both spouses have to be living in order to receive spousal benefits survivors benefits are for the survivor of a deceased spouse in this video we're going to be focusing on survivors benefits but first if you've not already watched my videos when's the best time to file for Social Security and what our Social Security counsel benefits I highly recommend you watch those first so this video will make the most sense possible so why only what you need to know for survivors benefits the reality is that survivors benefits is a very complex and complicated topic and even for me it could quickly become overwhelming and difficult to understand when looking at all the different variables and scenarios that can exist and trying to understand what the best decision would be in each of those different scenarios so the goal of this video is not to lay out all of that detailed information all the possible scenarios and all of the percentages that are involved in survivors benefits instead my goal is to tell you only what you need to know in order to have an understanding of how survivors benefits work and then how to know the best action you should take or the best decision you should make when this becomes relevant to you now to be completely honest with you my videos and blog content and even my business itself isn't really for do-it-yourselfers and there's plenty of information already out there for people who really want to know all the details and do this for themselves my business and in turn the information I'm putting out like this video is really meant for people who want to have enough of an understanding of the decisions they're making in order to feel confident comfortable and be able to have a worry-free retirement but not so much information that they feel overwhelmed or confused this is for people who understand not only the value but in my opinion the necessity of working with professional advisor to help them correctly determine the calculations that they don't have the knowledge of trolls to do themselves so the can save themselves from making big mistakes and wasting tons of time and finally they want to work with someone who could motivate encourage and sometimes even challenge them to make the decisions that they know are in their own best interest so the reason for saying all that is that in this video I'm not going to be going into all of the complicated details around survivors benefits that's already out there if you want to read about it instead I'm going to give you only the information you need to be able to feel comfortable and confident in the decisions that you make and hopefully without feeling overwhelmed or confused so with all that said this is what in my opinion you really need to know about survivors benefits and what you need to do here's the quick facts your survivors benefit amount would be based upon the earnings of the person who passed away the monthly amount you would get is a percentage of the deceased Social Security benefit and ranges from seventy one and a half percent to a hundred percent of the deceased basic benefit if the surviving spouse has reached their full retirement age or older they may receive one hundred percent of the deceased benefit amount if the surviving spouse is between age sixty and their full retirement age they may receive between seventy one and a half percent of 99 percent of the deceased benefit amount you're not eligible for survivors benefits if you're younger than sixty unless you're disabled or caring for a dependent in which case there are separate rules if the person who passed away was receiving reduced benefits your survivors benefit will be based upon that reduced amount the maximum survivors benefit amount is limited to what the deceased would receive if they were still alive and this is relevant if the deceased spouse hadn't filed for Social Security yet the survivor can receive up to the benefit amount the deceased was eligible for at his age of death and lastly the surviving spouse will only receive one benefit their own benefit or a survivor benefit however the surviving spouse is able to receive a survivor's benefit and later switch to their own benefit if it's higher now to make this as simple and easy to understand as possible I want to explain that there are only two times when you need to think about and make a decision about survivors benefits the first time is before filing for Social Security the next time is once a spouse has passed away now if you read some books on Social Security and survivors benefits and I'm not discouraging you from doing that at all just trying to help this all make more sense and be easier to understand but you'll discover all kinds of different variables scenarios and strategies however the majority of these variables and the resulting strategies can not be known until one spouse has passed away and so they don't really matter until that time comes but to give an example some of the variables that will matter at the time of your second the decision once one spouse has passed away are is the surviving spouse the higher earner or the lower earner has the surviving spouse reached full retirement age had the deceased spouse reached full retirement age has the survivor started taking their own benefits and of course there are many more and while it is necessary for me as an advisor who works with lots of different people in situations to understand all this it's not necessary for you to understand all of the different possible survivors benefits scenarios and strategies trust me you could get lost in these different strategies for days and there's just no reason to do that instead when a spouse is passed away being the surviving spouse should work with an advisor to look only at the options relevant to them at that time and figure out what decisions make the most sense then now if both spouses have already reached age 70 and began their benefits which is most often the case then the answer is usually just to call the Social Security Administration and find out what the surviving spouses new benefit is going to be based on the higher of their own benefits for their survivors benefits many times there's not even a second decision to have to make it all which means and don't miss this this is really important which means the biggest impact to survivors benefits is usually made during the first decision prior to filing so what do you need to do to plan for survivors benefits prior to filing first plan your Social Security benefits based upon your actual life expectancies in my video when's the best time to file for Social Security I talked about the importance of using accurate life expectancies versus conservative life expectancies and that's definitely still the case in financial planning we do like to have emergency plans but we make decisions based upon the most likely situations and if a spouse passes away earlier than expected then you can work with an advisor again to make new decisions at that time because you'll be able to plan with actual numbers based upon your actual situation second and most importantly don't try to do this on your own it is well worth the small cost of working with an advisor to really look at the different options you have based on your situation never risk a lot to save a little now I'll repeat that never risk a lot to save a little that makes sense right that the brain is too close I want to quickly try to recap this for you if you've already filed for Social Security and both of you are still living then you don't need to think about or plan for survivors benefits until one spouse has passed away because you can't know what the situation will be until at that time just wait and work with an advisor then if either if you haven't already filed for Social Security then now is the best time to have the biggest impact on survivors benefits figure out what filing ages are going to give you the maximum lifetime benefits including the estimated survivors benefits based upon your actual life expectancies in my opinion this is really all you need to know about survivors benefits unless you plan to try and figure this out without any help but if you're the type of person who likes to avoid mistakes and make the best decisions possible then that's exactly why out the bail it's not easy to understand social security analysis to learn more about how I can help you figure out your unique survivors benefits and to discover how you can get the maximum lifetime Social Security benefits that you deserve click the button below now thank you again for taking the time to watch this video I sincerely hope that it's been helpful to you take care [Music]