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Yes, if you look under the hood, immediateannuities.com and Schwab offer many of the same insurance company annuities (e.g., Nationwide, Integrity Life, etc.) and each receives a commission of 2% or so from the insurance company. Therefore the numbers won't differ that much. Schwab's tool is an...

Pension Value The easiest and most accurate way to do this is to use the Schwab Income Annuity Estimator. You input your monthly pension and the start date and the estimator solves for the single premium it would take today to purchase that income stream payable in the future. So, it reflects...

Yes, I don't disagree with you on the point. My positioning was to cover the five-year period that one might need LTSS (long-term services and supports)...If we cover this, we cover a lot of the risk we face. And yes, those with more education tend to have better access to healthcare, better...

CRR I cited this as research shows the more educated individuals are, the less likely to need LTC. Severe needs are a duration of three plus years for those with 2+ Activities of Daily Living or dementia according to the Center for Retirement Research. It’s a 20% probability for those with at...

Here is one way to hedge This is an important topic as OP and others are hesitant to spend due to the risk of late-in-life healthcare expenses Here's how I wrote about this topic recently. The 2021 Genworth survey indicates median cost of $94,900 for semi-private room in a skilled nursing...

SPIAs While higher interest rates have indeed increased the SPIA payouts over the last year or so, SPIA purchasers can also now buy SPIAs that have most of the traditional commissions stripped out. Hence, payouts are often higher than found on broker websites. These SPIAs have been built for...

SPIAs There are many other types of SPIAs than just a life-only SPIA. For instance, you can purchase a five-year period certain annuity which is a SPIA. As a result, it's not just long-term bonds the insurer will invest in. They will do an asset/liability match and assets will often be in bonds...

Income Bridge Old-timers here may recall I published a paper at The Pension Research Council about the value of delaying SS and dubbed the process "Social Security Bridge" as well as "Income Bridge" based on research I started 20 yrs. ago. I am thankful for all the great feedback I received on...

A couple of posters have indicated that to convert from a 529 plan to a Roth IRA there must be earned income. Can you point to a reference as I don't believe this to be correct? I know a conversion counts against the Roth IRA annual contribution amount but haven't seen a source that says there...

A small number of insurers have created SPIAs for the RIA community and as such, the traditional commissions of 2%-7% have largely been stripped out. If you know you want a SPIA, it likely makes sense to find an RIA who will work with you for a small fee to get a quote and acquire the SPIA if...

Tax Torpedo Regarding the popularity of the term Tax Torpedo, much of it comes from my paper published at The Pension Council in 2007. The paper, Rethinking Social Security Claiming in a 401(k) World mentions the Tax Torpedo. I had found a Scott Burns (Dallas Morning News) article that I...

Six Months Larry Kotlikoff has written that many filers are “defaulted” into a six month retroactive lump sum. I wonder if they were doing that and quoting a 69 1/2 year claim?

It may have been mentioned earlier but the tax benefits of delaying SS to age 70 often include significant savings at the state level as well. For example, I'll be in South Carolina and the ordinary income tax rate on income over (just) $15,400 (in 2022) is 7%. SS is tax-free in SC. By delaying...

Yes they are

Cuts Yes, I think it's safe to assume that someone eligible to take SS and has chosen not to, is as safe as someone who has started benefits. Yes, the changes in 1983 gave people a long time to adjust and prepare and I would agree that most adjustments will follow suit. (What might be more...

Let me answer it this way. The chart is a bit misleading as it is not necessarily 85% of SS benefit taxed at filer's marginal tax rate in the lower right hand box. It's UP TO 85%. In reality, the Combined Income formula says it is the lowest of: 1. 85% of the benefits; or 2. 50% of the...

SS Cuts It's highly unlikely SS benefits will be cut for current retirees. IMO, there is a much higher likelihood that ordinary income tax rates increase, thereby impacting IRA withdrawals more than SS income.

Erisa ERISA protects vested benefits so you can't be fired and lose out on what has already vested. What you would lose out on is just the additional pension benefits that would still accrue if you remained working.

It’s been a while since I have posted. My name is Jim Mahaney and my paper is cited in the Bogleheads wiki mention above. The link is broken on the Wiki page, so I'll repost it below. I originally wrote the paper back in 2005 and one thing that really hasn't changed much is the lack of...

Retiring Earlier The reason someone might be willing to delay SS is so they can likely retire earlier using this strategy. As we have discussed before, creating larger amounts of retirement income in the form of SS will often significantly reduce the amount of taxes paid over the course of a...

Taxes A big issue is taxes and for those who have not read our discussion before, the problem for many people will be that they will face high marginal rates on their IRA income when they couple that income with Social Security. Referred to as "The Tax Torpedo" by Scott Burns and others, most...

Yes Yes..More to come (hopefully) as well.

On paying back One other point on the whole "take it at 62 and pay it back"..Other than this being highly unlikely for someone to actually do, it is not the optimal approach for most married couples. When you pay back benefits at an advanced age, say age 70, you have to pay spousal benefits...

I disagree I respectively disagree with this post. As we have discussed before and I have written about, there is still a tremendous tax saving for a typical single individual to tap qualified assets for income and delay SS to 70. For example, in a recent paper, when delaying SS, we found that...

Wash?? For married couples, it certainly is not a wash whichever way you take it. As I have written about and proven, if the higher earner in a married couple delays SS, you can expect much higher lifetime SS, tap spousal benefits that would be otherwise wasted, have a surviving spouse recieve...