Renewal season is open. Groups with a January anniversary should start now — book a renewal review.
Independent and multi-carrier. Licensed in 11 states. No cost to you.
Medicare
Individual and family
Quoting
Compliance
Life stages
Planning
Retirement income desk
Claiming age is one of the few retirement decisions that is permanent and calculable. We run the arithmetic on your own earnings record and do not sell anything in the meeting.
Break-even
Claiming early gives you more cheques and smaller ones. Waiting gives you fewer cheques and larger ones. The crossover is where the cumulative totals meet, and it moves with your health, your other income and your spouse's record.
| Claiming age | Monthly | Annual | Versus full retirement age | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | $1,680 | $20,160 | -30% | Earliest eligibility. A permanent reduction for claiming before full retirement age. |
| 65 | $2,081 | $24,970 | -13% | Medicare eligibility, which is a separate program with its own deadlines. |
| 67 | $2,400 | $28,800 | Baseline | Full retirement age for people born in 1960 or later. |
| 70 | $2,976 | $35,712 | +24% | Delayed retirement credits stop accruing here. There is no benefit to waiting longer. |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Method
Your Social Security statement, not an estimate. Gaps and low years in the 35-year calculation are worth seeing.
It depends on your birth year. Claiming before it is a permanent reduction; claiming after it earns delayed credits.
Usually 62, full retirement age and 70, with the cumulative totals plotted year by year.
The age at which total lifetime benefits from waiting overtake total benefits from claiming early.
Spousal and survivor benefits frequently change the answer, particularly where earnings histories differ.
Claiming Social Security before 65 enrolls you in Medicare automatically at 65, which affects HSA contributions.
Credentials, explained
Letters after a name get used as a trust signal and explained almost never.
Before you file
If your question is not here, call the desk. Nobody will put you on a list for asking.
No. It is right when you have other income to live on, expect a long life, or are the higher earner in a couple where a survivor benefit matters. It is often wrong when health is poor or when claiming early lets you avoid drawing down invested assets in a bad market.
The age at which cumulative benefits from a later claim overtake cumulative benefits from an earlier one. For a 62 versus 70 comparison it typically lands somewhere in the late seventies to early eighties, depending on the numbers. We calculate it on your own record rather than quoting an average.
Before full retirement age, an earnings test can withhold part of your benefit if you earn above an annual limit. Those withheld amounts are recalculated into a higher benefit later, so it is a deferral rather than a pure loss. After full retirement age, the earnings test no longer applies.
If you are receiving Social Security at 65 you are enrolled in Part A automatically, which ends HSA eligibility. If you are still working with employer coverage and want to keep contributing to an HSA, the timing matters and needs planning before your birthday, not after.
No. The claiming analysis is a planning conversation. If it leads to an annuity or income product discussion, that is a separate meeting you choose to have.
No products are sold in a claiming session. If it leads somewhere else, that is a separate conversation you choose to have.
Independent and multi-carrier. $0 cost to work with us. No pressure scripts.
We value your privacy
We use cookies to run this site, remember your preferences and understand how it is used.Cookie policy