Social Security Collection

Deciding when to take Social Security is very tough thanks to the system's enormous complexity. But making the right decision can make a huge difference to your retirement. The download programs help you decide when to collect the retiree, spousal, survivor, divorcee, parent, and child benefits to which you are entitled. By trying different collection dates for retirement, spousal, and survivor benefits, you can quickly determine which collection dates produce the highest living standard.

Our online tool, Maximize My Social Security, helps you decide when to collect the retiree, spousal, survivor, divorcee, parent, and child benefits to which you are entitled. Specifically, it finds the benefit collection dates that maximize the present value of your lifetime benefits and compares these benefits with those based on your intended collection dates.

Our Social Security calculations are very precise. They take into account Social Security's earnings test, reductions for early retirement, re-computation of benefits, delayed retirement credit, family benefit maximum, windfall elimination provision, government offset provision, and the option to file and suspend.

How does ESPlanner calculate Social Security differently from the Maximize My Social Security tool?

Both calculate your SS amount and both give you ways to compare the amounts you'll receive given different options—but the download program also translates this benefit amount into its impact on lifetime discretionary spending—which the Maximize software does not do. Maximize does one thing very quickly and very well: it reveals the highest future value for your benefit given the right combination of choices, which it finds for you—something the download program does not do. With the download version, you may have to try several options to see the highest benefit.