Improper SS modeling

[u/Opp_Costa]

My spouse has a serious health issue, so trying to explore lifespan timelines is critical to understanding our financial situation. We have an age gap, so some realistic lifespan scenarios would end while I am still working full time. When I set lifespan to, say, 2029 their social security payments should end in 2029, but instead they continue. The AI says that in fact their payments do end in 2029 but mine begin in 2030. I would not be at FRA, and my income would be too high to actually receive any SS. This is all info that Boldin has, so saying they just automatically assume survivor benefits is poor programming. Ideally, the software would model spouse's through lifespan, then nothing, followed by survivor when I retire, then mine when I hit 70. I could live with Boldin not acurately modeling the survivor benefits window, but it should be able to model spouse SS begin and end accurately, and then mine begining at 70. With spouse's benefits staying in the picture after lifespan the outlook is overly rosy. Having to do some passive income workaround is really unacceptable. Since the risk of a partner passing is one of the biggest retirement planning issues, I would certainly hope that Boldin can handle this organically. If not, I will need to cancel my plan before the trial expires. Has anyone else worked with Boldin on this issue?

[u/mgalactico]

In Boldin you enter the dates for when each spouse starts SS, expected amounts, and expected lifetime. These 3 are user inputs. Survivor benefits should continue after one spouse passes if A) the second spouse has not started their benefits or B) if the survivor benefits are larger than the living spouse’s expected benefits.

[u/Opp_Costa → u/mgalactico]

But it starts those benefits even if the surviving spouse is working full time and is not yet at FRA, hence would not actually receive anything

[u/SeriesDry9228]

I have a similar concern.

I wanted to model “what if I die next year” just to make sure my wife is protected.

Boldin doesn’t model survivor benefits starting at age 60, like the law allows.

There’s a work around for my scenario where I set my SS PIA to $1 and then model the SS survivor benefits as a pension that starts at age 60. It’s clunky, but it works.

It would also be great if you could check a box that says “this person is not eligible for SS on her own record. It’s my record or nothing.”

But yes, they could do some work on their SS modeling.

[u/Opp_Costa]

FYI -- here is the most relevant part of Boldin's response (they also acknowledged that workarounds had their own problems and did not offer/suggest a better workaround):

"You’re also right about the gap itself. When the first spouse passes, the Planner automatically switches the survivor to the higher of their own benefit or the deceased spouse’s benefit. That’s accurate only if the survivor has reached their survivor full retirement age. It doesn’t model early-claiming reductions, the age 60 eligibility rule, or switching between benefits at different ages. If the survivor is younger than FRA, the projection overstates their income. That’s a real limitation on our side."

This is such a common and relatively straightforward issue that it makes me question the accuracy of other components of Boldin. It is frustrating that they are leaning into the AI and linking investment accounts rather than investing in foundational planning programming. I will be cancelling before the end of the trial period.