: Mark Colgan
: Death's Red Tape Your Guide for Navigating Legal, Financial, and Personal Transitions When
: Houndstooth Press
: 9781544529257
: 1
: CHF 7.30
:
: Ratgeber
: English
: 206
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
A week before 9/11, Mark Colgan lost his wife to heart disease. In the span of a single day, he went from waking up next to her to planning her burial. Even for a Certified Financial Planner?, the mountain of financial and legal details that spanned the next year of his life was overwhelming. Whether you're a surviving spouse, partner, child, or friend, Death's Red Tape guides you gently through the financial and administrative process following the death of a loved one. The book is organized chronologically in small, clear sections so you can face each task one step at a time, with checklists to keep things simple. It even includes a glossary of technical terms along with valuable websites and resources you'll need along the way. In this difficult time, a book can't erase all the challenges of your loss, but it can make the practical aspects of navigating that loss a little easier.

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Collect Survivor Benefits

This chapter will help you determine whether you’re entitled to certain survivor benefits and, if so, what you can expect and how to apply for them.

Social Security Survivor Benefits

Social Security benefits are paid to surviving spouses, their minor or disabled children, and sometimes other family members. Contact your nearest Social Security office as soon as possible to find out if you qualify. While the funeral director usually notifies the Social Security Administration, that isn’t a formal claim for benefits.

Determining Decedent’s Insured Status

If you’re inquiring about whether you can collect survivor benefits, it’s important to first determine if the decedent was currently insured or fully insured. This “insured status” is a determination of whether there’s a benefit to collect.

For the decedent to have achievedcurrently insured status, they must have had at least six quarters of earnings covered by Social Security withholding during the full thirteen-quarter period prior to their death.

For the decedent to have achievedfully insured status, they must have had up to forty quarters (ten years) of earnings covered by Social Security, depending on their age at the time of their death. Additionally, if the decedent worked for only one and a half years in the three years just prior to their death, benefits can be paid to their children and spouse, who is caring for the children.

The decedent’s insured status doesn’t affect the amount of the benefit their survivors receive. It’s simply a minimum work requirement, which must be met before a particular benefit is payable. Once this minimum is met, a benefit amount is computed based on the decedent’s average earnings.

Who Can Collect Survivor Benefits

Certain relatives of the decedent have the opportunity to collect Social Security survivor benefits, potentially including the survivor, divorced survivor, unmarried children, and/or dependent parents.

Survivors

A survivor who did not remarry before turning age sixty (fifty if disabled) are eligible to receive survivor benefits:

  • At full retirement age (full benefits)
  • As early as age sixty (reduced benefits)
  • At age fifty or older if disabled
  • At any age, if she or he takes care of a child of the deceased who is younger than age sixteen or disabled

Divorced Survivors

A divorced ex-spouse who is at least sixty (fifty if disab