You can’t trust the Social Security Administration to give you the straight scoop on claiming strategies, says William Meyer, author and Social Security software developer.

One of the biggest decisions a person will make in his financial life will be the type of Social Security claiming strategy he takes, but administration personnel are not properly trained to sniff out the exact policy that helps people get the most money, Meyer says.

“In fact, around 70 percent of Social Security recipients could be getting more money than they are.”

Meyer is the founder of Social Security Solutions, an information source on Social Security. Its offerings include research and planning tools and SSanalyzer.com.

He has also testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Social Security and retirement issues. He and William Reichenstein, who holds the Pat and Thomas R. Powers Chair in Investment Management at Baylor University, have written several books on Social Security strategies together.

“Financial advisors frequently send their clients to the Social Security office to claim benefits in line with their financial plans, only for the clients to be told by a Social Security agent that they cannot implement the strategy they want,” Meyer says. “And frequently, the Social Security agent is wrong.”

For instance, a recent change in regulations eliminated a strategy called “file and suspend.” Under this strategy, one spouse used to be able to file for his benefits but then suspend them, allowing the benefits to continue to grow by 8 percent a year until he was age 70. With one spouse filing, but then suspending benefits, it allowed the other spouse to claim spousal benefits.

This strategy was recently eliminated. But regulations still allow a full-retirement-aged recipient to suspend his benefits after he has started them in order to allow the benefits to grow by about 8 percent each year until he’s age 70. This might be done if a person's circumstances changed after he started receiving benefits.

“File and suspend so your spouse can collect is not the same thing as voluntarily suspending your own benefits so they can grow,” Meyer points out. “Social Security is incredibly complicated. That’s just one example," he says. The Program Operations Manual System, the reference guide for Social Security rules, has thousands of regulations in it.

“Problems arise because the Social Security agents do not have the right tools and are not properly prepared to give the right information to the tsunami of baby boomers coming to them,” Meyer adds.

Instead of simply telling the client to go to the Social Security office to file for benefits, an advisor should provide the client with advice about a particular claiming strategy and then arm the client with the written regulations that pertain to his specific benefits, Meyer says. Meyer's firm provides support for advisors with these issues.

One of the largest areas of confusion at the Social Security offices is the filing of restricted applications. A restricted application means the person is not applying for the highest benefits he may be eligible for at the time. For instance, a person could apply for survivor benefits based on a late spouse’s earnings record while he lets his own benefits grow each year until age 70. He would then switch to his own higher benefits at age 70.

This is a claiming strategy that was affected by a budget action at the end of 2015, but is still available to retirees born before January 2, 1954. Meyer states that advisors should be prepared for the fact that most agents at Social Security will tell all clients the strategy is no longer available when it is, in fact, available to older clients.

“For this situation and many others, it’s common for clients to go back to the advisor after being told their strategy isn’t possible,” Meyer says. “Be prepared with the exact regulations to back up your advice and your client.”