Social Security: Preparing for Retirement
Course Description: Deciding when to claim Social Security benefits is one of the most important retirement decisions clients will make. For married clients, it can be especially complicated. This presentation reviews the top mistakes when estimating spousal benefits, the recent changes to Social Security, and how to coordinate benefits. It also discusses the options that are available to clients who are widowed, divorced, or worked in a government position that did not pay into Social Security. After leaving the session, advisors will be armed with the most important information they need to answer most Social Security questions.
Course Objective: G.53. Social Security and Medicare
a. Provide an overview of the Social Security system.
d. Explain the computation of the averaged indexed monthly earnings (AIME), the primary insurance amount (PIA), and disability, survivors, and maximum family benefits.
e. Assist a client in selecting the optimal date to begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits and the impact of the earnings test.
f. Explain the windfall elimination and the government pension offset on retirement benefits.
Karen L. Ireland, CFP, CRPC®, is a business development consultant at MFS Investment Management® (MFS®). She is responsible for delivering MFS’ practice management solutions to financial advisors, with a focus on retirement and Social Security planning.
Karen joined MFS in 2015. Before that, she worked at Pioneer Investments for eight years, most recently as the practice management director, and in prior roles as a senior product manager and national retirement strategies consultant. She previously worked as a senior analyst at Cerulli Associates for three years and as a senior internal wholesaler at Sun Life Distributors, Inc. for four years. She began her career in the financial services industry in 1999, when she joined Manulife Financial as a key accounts annuity service specialist.
Karen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gustavus Adolphus College. She holds the Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Retirement Planning CounselorSM designations. She also holds Series 7 and 66 licenses from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
