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Early, Full or Delayed Social Security Benefits
In our last column we examined how to qualify for Social Security (SS) benefits. Now we take a look at what you and your clients need to know when deciding when to collect. A worker can begin collecting SS benefits as…
Retirement savings rebound, but it’s still important to plan
On the plus side, a new study shows, Americans’ retirement savings has rebounded from the depths of the Great Recession. Nearly 60 percent of workers say they have somewhat or fully recovered from the 2007-2009 downturn and median savings has risen…
Medicare ACO Presents Unique Challenges
Although accountable care organizations (ACOs) have proliferated beyond Medicare, they differ from Medicare ACOs in important ways, according to one organization operating both types. Read more… Notice: The “Read more…” link provided above connects readers to the full content…
Do Social Security and Medicare Go Hand in Hand?
Millions of Americans use both Social Security and Medicare. But how do the programs affect each other? In the following video from our Social Security Q&A series, Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool’s director of investment planning, answers a question from Fool…
Diabetes driving up health care costs, study finds
One in four people hospitalized in Santa Cruz County has diabetes, and one in three in California, driving up health care costs, according to a study released Thursday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research recommending prevention efforts. The study,…
The Importance of Giving All Workers Access to a Retirement Savings Plan
Back in January, Sylvester Schieber and Andrew Biggs made the case that retirement incomes are in much better shape than is commonly understood. Because the Current Population Survey (CPS) fails to count the bulk of the income older Americans derive from 401(k)…
COLUMN-Senator Rubio’s surprisingly bipartisan retirement saving idea
May 15 (Reuters) – When Republican politicians talk about how important Social Security and Medicare have been for their parents, it’s time to grab your wallet. These stories usually precede a proposal to cut benefits under the guise of “saving”…
Report finds ‘failure’ in Social Security discrimination complaint process
The Social Security Administration has failed to establish an adequate process for handling discrimination claims from employees and has sparked concerns about conflicts of interest in some of those cases, according to a scathing federal report obtained Thursday by The…
Why disability insurance is critical
Most people understand why having life insurance is a good idea: Nobody wants to leave their survivors in a financial lurch if they were to die suddenly. But what if you suffer an accident or illness and don’t die, but…
3 Ways to Kickstart Your Retirement Plan
Saving for retirement is above all a mental game. After all, that’s what people like about good old-fashioned pension plans — no muss, no fuss, things just work. It’s also why we tend to prefer direct deposit and online bill pay…