Your clients may like to create a financial to-list for the year. And if they’re like most people, the list likely includes: pay down debt and save more for retirement. But there’s a lesser-known but equally important task that you should suggest they add to the list: Check your Social Security Statement.
To do so, they'll have to create and sign in to a personal my Social Security account.There, they can review personal estimates of future Social Security benefits based on real earnings and review their entire earnings history. It’s important to know now, before benefits start.
What to look for? Well, it’s especially important to review your earnings record for missing years and mistakes, which may reduce the Social Security benefit. And neither you nor your clients want to receive less from Uncle Sam than what you are owed. So, if you discover errors and/or mistakes, contact Social Security.
There are several reasons earnings could be missing from the account. To learn more, and what you need to do to correct your record, read this SSA publication.
You can find this article from TheStreet here. And we have a helpful article reprint that you can brand and send to clients explaining why they need to set up a my Social Security account.