“We have reached out to all of our clients who might be affected and initiated the conversation about whether they want to use this option or go a more traditional route,” he says.
Leland has approximately 350 clients that his team handles. Of those, 25 to 30 are affected by the Social Security change and about one quarter of that number are using the file-and-suspend strategy before it becomes unavailable, he says. Clients have to be of retirement age to use the strategy.
“The key message we are giving clients who are not retirement age is that they may have lost the opportunity to use the file and suspend strategy, but that does not mean that it is not important to plan for Social Security,” he warns. “It is more important because the loss of this strategy in the future costs them some money.”