Our daily roundup of retirement news your clients may be thinking about.
Retirees can now retrieve the notices from the Social Security Administration about their cost-of-living adjustment for next year, according to this article on CNBC. However, some of them may have a hard time getting their one-time pass code to log on to their My Social Security account. "While thousands and thousands of our beneficiaries are accessing their notices online, our online portal is experiencing higher than normal volumes of log in attempts,” says a spokeswoman with Social Security. "If they experience this problem, we ask them to please try again later."
Seniors are advised to make a structured retirement plan that will enable them to replace their income after they retire, writes an investment adviser for Kiplinger. When developing such a plan, clients should account for Social Security benefits, pension and investments in various savings accounts, writes the expert. "With a plan, you’ll have a better chance of avoiding the worst-case scenarios that make pre-retirees and retirees so nervous: that you might have to go back to work or substantially downsize your lifestyle."
An expert says that retirement savers who don't qualify to make deductible contributions to an IRA because of the income limits have still the option of contributing non-deductible money to the account, according to this Q&A article on personal finance website Motley Fool. They may also opt to invest in a taxable brokerage account, where they will face long-term capital gains tax rates, which are more favorable than income tax rates, says the expert. A taxable account can also generate qualified dividends that are subject to lower long-term capital gains tax rates.
Morningstar's Christine Benz says that the recent market volatility should not compel investors to de-risk their entire portfolio. Instead, clients should consider rebalancing, especially when they are heavier on the stock side if have not done anything to their portfolio for the past years, says the expert. While younger investors should look at the market downturn as an opportunity to invest more in stocks, "for people who are getting close to retirement..., they should use our X-Ray functionality, see where they are now, compare it to a target, and see if some de-risking is in order.”
