Yea, it’s clear as mud! A call to social security and that they understand!
My mom is a PERS retiree so I understand some of the complexities. I think the question they get applies to spousal benefits not your own benefits. I know my mom cannot claim my dad’s benefits even though he is deceased. She would qualify for his entire benefit because of the offset she gets none. She does collect her own benefits but I’m not sure if there is an offset for that as well.
And every situation is different. In my mom’s case as yours, she worked some for the state and some into SS. But in her case it’s more like 2/3 state, 1/3 private business.
I have my own conundrum. I worked part time and paid into a PERS retirement for 9 years. I also have enough credits for my own social security. But 1/2 of my husband’s is higher. The PERS amount is a whopping $84/month! I have no idea how that affects claiming my spousal benefit.
Sounds like a very complicated math problem doesn’t it?
Right calculators can be helpful but when you layer all the different scenarios among a couple it’s complicated and I am not interested in making any assumptions!
My H entire 40ish year career was all state pension. So no SS benefits on his side.
I fall under these provisions also. Under the WEP your benefit can never be reduced to zero. The Mac reduction in 2022 is $512.
Spousal benefit (me claiming from my spouse) is affected by the GPO (government pension offset). There is a formula used which you can find online. It in fact can be reduced to zero as mine will be. I will not be able to claim any spousal benefit. Don’t even get me started on that.
The chart in the link provided by MAandMEmom was the most useful thing I found to get an idea of how much DH’s SS would be reduced by WEP. For me it was a rough calculation and though he has started SS it’s not particularly clear how much WEP reduced his benefit since he waited past 66 to begin. The maximum WEP amount (for the number of years you had substantial earnings at a SS contributing job) applies to PIA which is the SS amount paid at full retirement age, and thus has a bigger effect on the total if benefits are delayed. WEP applies to your own and spousal benefits (spousal amount is up to half the WEP reduced PIA amount) but not to survivors benefits.
H does not have any SS benefits as he worked almost exclusively the public sector/state pension. A question will be if he would get any SS survivor benefits from me if I died, but our concern now is just at the different ages I might decide to start taking SS, how much will I get due to my state pension (which I will never be fully vested because I will never have 30 years in).
Admittedly, all the lingo and acronyms and this and that only confuse me! I just really need to talk to a SS person who has MY info in front of them!
I paid into SS from age 16-30 (14 yrs), then 31 into teacher pension system. I didn’t expect much from SS, it covers medicare with a little bit left over.
Probate question … I’ve always heard people want to avoid probate. My dad died two years ago and had land in his name that is now my mom’s. Do we have to go through probate to make that happen officially? I don’t know why this flummoxes me.
If the land is retitled in your mom’s name and she has a will, I don’t believe it should need to go through probate (but check the laws in your state).
We ran into trouble because my dad died before some things were re-titled so we had their condo that needed to go through probate. It wasn’t a big deal other than the attorney costs which was substantial.
Here’s a more specific question. If hasn’t been retitled in my mom’s name. She’s 90, and when she dies it’ll come to the three kids. If we go through probate, should be just have it go from my dad’s name to me and my siblings?
Check the laws in your state. Where we have lived, it should have passed to your mom as the surviving spouse. If your mom has capacity though, she can retitle the property to you and your siblings.
I don’t really know what I’m talking about here, but I think you may also want to let it go to mom, and then when it comes to you the value will be higher so when you sell it you pay less cap gains, or something like that. (I think it’s called stepped up value?) If you don’t plan to see then it may not matter.
We and the land are in Texas. I have a call in to a lawyer recommended to me.
I think my siblings aren’t going to want to spend the money to do this correctly, and it’ll end up creating more issues. I am a little nervous to start calling and asking too many questions. I called the county tax office where the land is located when my mom was wondering whether we needed to do anything, and the woman in the office changed if from my dad’s name to Dad’s Name Estate. She said I had four years to get it probated. He’s been gone two years.
FWIW, I felt the whole estate thing was super stressful. Working with an attorney and making sure things are done right is probably worth the money. I still have nightmares that I didn’t do something correctly.
California Probate attorney here. This is totally a state by state question. But no matter what state you are in, you want to take care of it before your mom passes. Talk to an attorney (sorry I know that isn’t what you want to hear). Doing it wrong/cutting corners now will cost way more to fix later. And you will have to fix it when someone tries to sell the property.
Most important questions: (a) is there a trust, and (b) exactly how is the property titled? Find the deed.
There is probably a simple process (not a full complicated probate) to transfer between spouses, if that is required. If your mom has the legal capacity to sign documents herself or she has a power of attorney document, hopefully it isn’t a big deal.
Then, please please please make sure she has an estate plan herself. You will want to avoid probate for her, too, if possible.
that they understand!
She said I had four years to get it probated. He’s been gone two years.