SERVICES
Social Security Maximization
We believe every dollar you pay in unnecessary taxes is a dollar that does not compound, does not fund your retirement, and does not reach the people you love. In our experience, tax planning is not an afterthought, it is one of the highest impact decisions in your financial life.
A Decision You Cannot Undo
For some retirees, Social Security benefits form the foundation of their retirement income. Yet the rules governing when you file, how you file, and what happens if you continue working are genuinely complex, and the decisions you make are could be permanent.
Filing too early can permanently reduce your monthly benefit. Filing too late may leave years of income on the table. The appropriate answer depends on your health, your other income sources, your marital history, your tax situation, and the rest of your retirement plan. In our experience a generic calculator cannot account for all of these factors.
At Financial Guidance Group, we try to help you evaluate your specific situation and identify the filing strategy that is most likely to serve you well over the full length of your retirement.
The Questions That We Believe Matter Most
Our Social Security planning process is built around the questions that we believe could have the greatest impact on your lifetime benefit:
When Is the Right Time to File?
In our experience, the age at which a person begins collecting Social Security can meaningfully affect their monthly retirement income. We believe the timing of a claim should be evaluated carefully in light of the individual's broader financial circumstances. Whether waiting to claim makes sense in your situation depends on factors that go beyond your birth date.
What Are Your Filing Options?
Work history and marital circumstances are among the factors we review when evaluating Social Security filing options. Potential spousal, survivor, and divorced-spouse benefits are also part of our review when relevant to a client's circumstances. In our experience these options are sometimes misunderstood or overlooked entirely.
How Does Earned Income Affect Your Benefit?
Our planning process considers how continued employment may interact with a Social Security filing decision. We believe understanding how the earnings limit works and when it no longer applies could be an important part of your filing decision.
How Is Your Social Security Benefit Taxed?
Our retirement-income planning process considers how taxes may affect the Social Security income available for spending. We believe the interaction between your benefit amount, your investment withdrawals, and your tax liability is a meaningful planning consideration, and one we address as part of our comprehensive approach to retirement income.
What Is Your Actual Benefit Amount?
Your projected Social Security benefit is one of the starting points in our planning process. In our experience understanding your projected benefit and how it might change at different filing ages could be useful when framing a more informed Social Security strategy.
Social Security in the Context of Your Full Retirement Plan
Social Security does not exist in isolation. We believe a Social Security filing decision should be considered alongside the timing of investment withdrawals, retirement tax planning, and the expected duration of portfolio income needs. Because we take a comprehensive planning approach at Financial Guidance Group, we evaluate your Social Security strategy in the context of everything else in your financial picture.
This means your filing decision is coordinated with your investment plan, your income needs, and your tax strategy, not made separately from them. For clients with complex situations, including those who are divorced, widowed, or managing multiple income sources, this coordinated approach could be important.
Social Security and Divorced or Widowed Women
When a client is divorced, we review whether benefits based on a former spouse’s work record may be relevant to the filing options available. If you are widowed, survivor benefits provide a different set of options that can meaningfully affect your retirement income. These provisions exist, but in our experience they are rarely explained clearly, and the decisions that go along with them deserve careful attention.
At Financial Guidance Group, we have worked with many women navigating retirement finances on their own for the first time. We understand the questions you are facing, and we take the time to explain your options in plain language before you make any decisions.
What Our Social Security Planning Services Include
- Complimentary personalized Social Security Maximization report specific to your situation
- Evaluation of spousal, survivor, and divorced-spouse benefit eligibility
- Social Security strategy coordinated with your full retirement income plan
- Tax implications of your filing decision analyzed by a CPA, CFP, and CFS
- Clear, jargon-free explanation of your options before you make any decisions
- Response to your questions will typically be within one business day
Request Your Complimentary Social Security Maximization Report
We offer a complimentary personalized Social Security Maximization Report. This report is specific to your situation, not a generic projection. We believe it is one of the most useful documents you can have as you plan your retirement income strategy. Contact us to request yours.
Credentials and Authority
CPA
Certified Public Accountant
CFP
Certified Financial Planner
CFS
Certified Fund Specialist
Social Security planning at Financial Guidance Group is led by William R. Henzey, CPA, CFP®, CFS. His background as a CPA means the tax implications of your Social Security filing decision are built into every recommendation we make.
Start with a Complimentary Assessment
The first step is a complimentary review of your current investments and financial position. We will tell you honestly where we believe you stand and what, if anything, needs to change.
Receive Your Complimentary Assessment
Complimentary • Get a response within 1 business day
"*" indicates required fields
Terms of Service
By entering your email you agree to receive personalized Financial Guidance Investment Advisers, Inc. information from time to time. You may unsubscribe at anytime.
ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF SERVICE Financial Guidance Investment Advisers, Inc. (“FGIA” "we" or “us” or “our”) owns and operates the website, https://www.fgg.net/, the mobile and touch versions and any sites we have now or in the future that reference these Terms of Service (collectively, "Site"). By using the Site and Financial Guidance Investment Advisers, Inc. services through the Site, you agree to these Terms of Service (defined below) and any additional terms applicable to certain programs in which you may elect to participate. You also agree to our Privacy Statement, located at: https://www.fgg.net/, and acknowledge that you will regularly visit the Terms of Service (defined below) to familiarize yourself with any updates. The Privacy Statement, together with these Terms of Service, and any other terms contained herein or incorporated herein by reference, are collectively referred to as the "Terms of Service." The term "using" also includes any person or entity that accesses or uses the Site with crawlers, robots, data mining or extraction tools or any other functionality. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE SITE.