Now that spring has officially sprung, there are hopefully many more enjoyable things on your mind than the topic of legal planning.
But given the importance of topics such as estate planning, Social Security and retirement planning as we age, there is no time like the present to get one’s ducks in a row.
The West Chester Area Senior Center, Chester County, offers about four guest speakers a year who address the basics of legal planning to help attendees feel more confident in knowing the action they need to take to secure their future.
“Things are always changing and evolving, so I have ongoing guest speakers because rules change and things change,” said Jessica Tipton, program director at the West Chester Senior Center.
The 45-minute talks conveniently take place right after lunch around 12:30 p,m. Speakers from Anderson Elder Law, Northwestern Mutual and SeniorLAW Center are usual guests.
“They talk about estate planning and retirement planning and also Social Security,” she said. “They also discuss how to plan for your family and how to set up trusts.”
SeniorLAW, a nonprofit law organization devoted to protecting the legal rights of seniors, typically centers its talk on wills, trusts and powers of attorney. Founded in 1978 by leaders of the Philadelphia Bar Association, educating the community is a part of its mission.
“We have served over 400,000 seniors 60 and older throughout Pennsylvania,” SeniorLaw Center states on its website.
Tipton generally adjusts topics and talks according to feedback she gets from attendees.
“They find it to be helpful and sometimes it triggers things they should be putting their focus on,” she said.
Tipton said that as much as laws change over time, the same goes for people’s lives.
“They could be in independent living and then all of a sudden a medical issue comes up and they have to look at things differently,” Tipton said.
A primary concern she sees is a worry about financial security.
“They have to look and question if they have enough to make it to 90,” she said. “They also need to learn how to look at their Social Security.”
According to AARP, Social Security payments will rise by 3.2% as the 2024 cost-of-living adjustment kicks in.
“The estimated average retirement benefit will go up by $59 a month, from $1,848 to $1,907,” AARP states on its website.
Given there are a myriad of backgrounds and professions among those who attend the Senior Center, Tipton said each person’s situation is unique, so the topics included in the talks are meant to touch upon various situations.
“They talk to them about how you take your 401(k) or IRA distribution,” she said. “Some people have teaching pensions or government pensions.”
The Senior Center’s next scheduled talk is taking place on April 10. No advanced registration is required to attend.
“We’ll have someone from Northwestern Mutual in Radnor coming here, and they’ll talk about Social Security benefits and retirement,” Tipton said.
The talk, titled “Social Security, Retirement Benefits and Advanced Retirement Concepts,” is open to anyone and will include time for questions.
“They were saying that it might be appropriate for our seniors’ kids who are in their 50s to come because you need to be knowing all of that and how it’s going to work,” she said, adding the center recommends the talk for those aged 60 and older.
Tipton finds there are some senior women who have been in a position most of their lives where their husband, who is now deceased, is the one who did all of the money management in the household. She has a talk coming up to address this topic.
“We’ll be having a lawyer come in and talk about women and financial planning,” she said. “It will cover how to manage finances as they age.”
More information
Resources
• West Chester Area Senior Center, 530 E. Union Street, West Chester, 610-431-4242, www.wcseniors.org
• SeniorLAW Center: www.seniorlawcenter.org
7 changes in 2024 that impact retirement finances
• Social Security payments: Social Security recipients will see their monthly payments rise by 3.2% as the 2024 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) kicks in.
• Medicare costs: After coming down by 3% in 2023, standard premiums for Medicare Part B are going back up in 2024, from $164.90 to $174.70 per month, a 6%.
• Retirement plan contributions:If you are 50 or older, you can put up to $8,000 into an individual retirement account (IRA) for the 2024 tax year. That includes the $1,000 catch-up contribution available to older savers. The cap for people under 50 is $7,000. In both cases, the contribution limit has been bumped up by $500 from 2023. (You can still make your contributions for the 2023 tax year — the deadline is April 15.)
• RMDs: Required minimum distributions (RMDs) are a fact of later life for holders of most types of retirement savings accounts. The notable exceptions are Roth IRAs, which are not subject to annual required withdrawals while the owner is alive. Starting with the 2024 tax year, this exception will also apply to Roth 401(k) and 403(b) accounts.
• Standard tax deduction: You get a bigger standard deduction if you or your spouse is 65 or older. It will be $1,850 more for a single filer or head of household (up from $1,750 for the 2022 tax year), and $3,000 more for a couple filing jointly (up from $2,800).
• Full retirement age: Congress voted in 1983 to gradually raise the Social Security full retirement age (FRA) from 65 to 67. Four decades on, the change is nearly complete, with FRA reaching 66 and 8 months in the latter half of 2024. You can start collecting retirement benefits before FRA — the minimum age is 62 — but your monthly payment will be permanently reduced, by as much as 30%. You can also wait past FRA and reap Social Security’s bonus for delaying benefits — an extra 8% a year until age 70.
• Social Security earnings test: If you claim Social Security retirement benefits before reaching FRA and continue to do paying work, your benefits may be temporarily reduced. That depends on whether your annual working income exceeds a set limit called the earnings test. For 2024, that limit increases from $21,240 to $22,320 for beneficiaries who will not reach FRA until a future year. Social Security withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 in earnings above the cap.
Source: www.aarp.org
