Duffy said the research showed that more than two-thirds of people want to claim Social Security at age 62, but it is really more about education, she said. “If women know how beneficial it might be to delay claiming, then they may not make that choice,” she said.
Duffy also made the following points:
• Social Security is inflation protected: “You have a cost-of-living increase in living build into Social Security. You really can’t replace that with any kind of asset tool in an investment account, at least not replace it as efficiently as Social Security,” she said.
• On replacing Social Security with an annuity: “Even if we try to replace Social Security with a commercial annuity, it’s not going to be affordable. We are never going to replace that value of what we actually put into Social Security," she said.
• On bridging strategies when delaying benefits: “We do need to bridge that income period when we are delayed to age 70. We will rely on other assets. For the affluent, they are going to have that asset to rely on. So, really this technique I going to be effective,” she said.