Maximize Social Security Benefits
If you’re approaching retirement, learning how to maximize your Social Security benefits is one of the most important steps you can take to secure long-term income you cannot outlive. At Diversified Insurance Brokers, we specialize in helping individuals and couples evaluate their filing options, model different claiming ages, and coordinate Social Security with other assets so each dollar works harder for you. With over 45 years of experience and access to more than 100 top-rated carriers and income tools, our team builds personalized retirement income strategies that go far beyond simply “claiming at 62 or 67.” Whether you’re filing this year or still several years away, we help you understand your options and align your benefits with your bigger retirement plan.
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Who Should Focus on Maximizing Social Security?
If you are between ages 62 and 70, the timing of your claim can change your lifetime Social Security income by tens of thousands of dollars. Claiming early provides income sooner but permanently reduces your monthly benefit. Waiting, especially closer to age 70, can increase your check significantly, which may be especially valuable if you expect a long retirement or have a younger spouse. For married couples, thoughtful coordination can be even more powerful. By staggering filing dates or letting the higher earner delay benefits, couples can increase total lifetime income and strengthen survivor benefits, similar to the strategies we discuss on our page about timing divorced spousal benefits.
Widows and widowers have unique opportunities and challenges. Survivor benefits can be claimed on a deceased spouse’s work record, and the sequence in which you use survivor and personal benefits can materially affect lifetime income. In some situations, it may make sense to start one benefit early and delay the other, especially if you are balancing Social Security with other guaranteed income sources such as pensions or annuities. High-income earners often face an additional layer of complexity—coordinating Social Security with required minimum distributions, pensions, and nonqualified assets in a way that preserves tax efficiency. In many cases, integrating Social Security with other tools we use in retirement planning, including life insurance and annuities, works very much like the planning shown on our page about using life insurance after a heart event as part of a broader strategy.
Benefits of a Social Security Optimization Strategy
A well-structured Social Security plan is about more than just choosing an age. It’s a framework for how and when you will generate income that must last for the rest of your life. One of the most obvious advantages is higher monthly income: delaying beyond full retirement age can increase your benefits each year you wait, up to age 70. For healthy individuals or couples with strong longevity in the family, this higher benefit acts like an inflation-adjusted pension that continues as long as you live.
Tax efficiency is another major benefit of proper planning. Depending on your “combined income,” up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxable. By coordinating claim timing with withdrawals from IRAs, Roth accounts, and other assets, we can often reduce how much of your benefit is exposed to taxes over your lifetime. This may involve filling lower tax brackets with strategic withdrawals in your 60s, smoothing out income so that you are not pushed into higher brackets later, and evaluating how working later in life interacts with your Social Security benefit, similar to the questions we address on our page about how working past 65 affects Social Security benefits.
Finally, Social Security optimization provides longevity protection. Because benefits are paid for life and indexed for inflation, your decision today affects how well your income keeps up with rising costs in your 70s, 80s, and beyond. When coordinated with annuity income, pensions, and other guaranteed sources, your Social Security strategy becomes the backbone of a plan designed to protect both current lifestyle and future security.
How We Help You Analyze Your Options
Our process starts with understanding your full financial picture: age, health, marital status, expected retirement lifestyle, and other income sources. We then model multiple claiming scenarios—such as claiming at 62, at full retirement age, or at 70—and compare them side by side. For couples, we also analyze strategies where one spouse claims earlier while the other delays, as well as approaches that prioritize survivor income. The goal is to show you not just the monthly benefit, but the long-term impact over a lifetime, including how different choices may interact with pensions, annuities, and investment withdrawals.
Because we work with a wide range of retirement income tools, we can also incorporate fixed and indexed annuities, life insurance, and other planning strategies into your analysis. In some situations, using annuity income to bridge the gap before claiming Social Security can make sense; in others, drawing down IRA assets earlier may reduce future required minimum distributions and lower your overall tax bill. Our role is to help you see how each decision fits together, not just in year one, but across decades of retirement.
Integrating Social Security with the Rest of Your Retirement Plan
Maximizing Social Security is not a stand-alone project; it’s part of a coordinated retirement income plan. We look at how your benefits will work alongside IRAs, 401(k)s, brokerage accounts, pensions, and any existing annuities. For self-employed individuals or those with irregular income, Social Security planning can help smooth out cash flow and provide a foundation on top of which we layer more flexible assets. For those with health concerns or a history of medical events, tools such as life insurance and annuity strategies can help protect your income and your family, much like the approaches we discuss on our page covering Social Security benefits for the self-employed.
We also pay careful attention to survivor benefits and legacy planning. For married couples, the higher earner’s benefit often becomes the survivor benefit if they pass away first. That’s why decisions around delaying or claiming early can have consequences not only for your lifetime income, but also for the surviving spouse. By modeling “what if” scenarios, we help you understand how different choices affect both lives—not just the first person to retire.
Real-World Impact of Smart Social Security Planning
Consider a married couple in their mid-60s who initially planned to claim at full retirement age as soon as they both retired. After a review, we showed them how staggering claims—having one spouse file earlier while the higher earner delayed benefits—could significantly increase their lifetime Social Security income. When we combined that strategy with a thoughtful plan for 401(k) withdrawals and existing annuity income, we were able to project a higher, more stable income stream with less exposure to future tax-rate increases. This type of planning is not one-size-fits-all, but it illustrates how timing and coordination can transform Social Security from just “a check” into a core component of a comprehensive retirement strategy.
Whether you are single, married, divorced, or widowed, it is almost always worth taking a closer look at your options before you file. Once you make a claiming decision, it can be difficult or impossible to fully reverse it later. A short planning conversation up front can help you avoid costly mistakes and give you more confidence about how Social Security fits into the rest of your retirement income.
FAQs: Maximize Social Security Benefits
When is the best age to begin claiming Social Security?
The “best” age depends on your health, income needs, and goals. Claiming as early as 62 gives you a smaller check for more years, while delaying closer to age 70 increases your monthly benefit and can provide stronger protection later in retirement. We typically compare several ages so you can see break-even points and long-term outcomes.
How can married couples maximize Social Security benefits together?
For many couples, it makes sense for the higher earner to delay benefits to increase the eventual survivor benefit, while the lower earner may file earlier to bring income into the household. Coordinating timing, benefit amounts, and survivor needs can add tens of thousands of dollars in lifetime income compared to both spouses filing as soon as they are eligible.
What are survivor benefits and why are they important?
Survivor benefits are payments made to a widow or widower based on a deceased spouse’s work record. They matter because the surviving spouse often loses one benefit but keeps the higher of the two. Planning for which benefit will ultimately become the survivor check helps protect the spouse who lives longer and ensures they aren’t left with a sharply reduced income.
How do taxes affect my Social Security income?
Depending on your overall income, up to 85% of your Social Security benefit may be taxable. By coordinating when you claim with how and when you draw from IRAs, Roth accounts, pensions, and annuities, we can often reduce the total tax you pay over time and keep more of each benefit check in your pocket.
Can I work and claim Social Security at the same time?
Yes, but if you claim before full retirement age and keep working, the earnings test may temporarily reduce your benefit if your income exceeds certain limits. After you reach full retirement age, the earnings test no longer applies, and your benefit may be adjusted upward to reflect months when payments were withheld earlier.
Can Social Security be coordinated with savings, pensions, or annuities?
Absolutely. Pairing Social Security with IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, and annuities lets you design a more stable, tax-efficient income plan. For example, you might use savings or annuity income to fill the gap while delaying Social Security, or you might claim earlier and preserve investment accounts for growth or legacy goals.
Is delaying Social Security always the right move?
Delaying often leads to a higher monthly check, but it isn’t always the best choice. Health, marital status, cash-flow needs, and how you feel about longevity risk all matter. For some clients, claiming earlier and preserving other assets makes more sense; for others, delaying creates valuable inflation-adjusted income for later years.
How can Diversified Insurance Brokers help with Social Security decisions?
We review your full financial picture, model multiple claiming strategies, and show how each choice affects lifetime income, taxes, and survivor benefits. Then we help you integrate Social Security with retirement accounts, annuities, and other tools so your overall plan is coordinated and easy to follow.
About the Author:
Jason Stolz, CLTC, CRPC, is a senior insurance and retirement professional with more than two decades of real-world experience helping individuals, families, and business owners protect their income, assets, and long-term financial stability. As a long-time partner of the nationally licensed independent agency Diversified Insurance Brokers, Jason provides trusted guidance across multiple specialties—including fixed and indexed annuities, long-term care planning, personal and business disability insurance, life insurance solutions, and short-term health coverage. Diversified Insurance Brokers maintains active contracts with over 100 highly rated insurance carriers, ensuring clients have access to a broad and competitive marketplace.
His practical, education-first approach has earned recognition in publications such as VoyageATL, highlighting his commitment to financial clarity and client-focused planning. Drawing on deep product knowledge and years of hands-on field experience, Jason helps clients evaluate carriers, compare strategies, and build retirement and protection plans that are both secure and cost-efficient.
