Dear Rusty: I am 60 years old. I have worked full time since age 22. I am thinking about working part-time from age 62-65. When I start collecting my Social Security benefit sometime after age 65, will my monthly amount be based on only the last few years of my working? Can you please explain how my monthly amount will be determined? 

Signed: Planning My Future 

Dear Planning: I admire that you’re thinking ahead to your retirement years and I’m happy to clarify this for you. Your Social Security benefit, when you claim it, will be based upon the highest earning 35 years of your lifetime working career (not only the last few years). To determine your benefit, the Social Security Administration will take your entire record of lifetime earnings, adjust each year for inflation, and select the 35 years in which you had the highest earnings. After totaling those years it will divide by 420 (the number of months in 35 years) to determine your “average indexed monthly earnings” (AIME). The agency then breaks your AIME into several parts (using what’s known as “bend points”) and then take a percentage of each part and add it up to arrive at what’s called your “primary insurance amount” (PIA). The “bend point” values change each year, but for 2019 they are $926 and $5,583. To compute your benefit, the formula will take 90 percent of the first $926 of your AIME; 32 percent of your AIME between $926 and $5,583; and 15 percent of any amount of your AIME over $5,583. The product of those three computations are added together to arrive at your PIA. 

Your PIA is the amount you will get at your full retirement age (FRA), which for you (born in 1959) is 66 years and 10 months. If you claim any earlier than your FRA, your benefit will be reduced — about 29 percent less if claimed at 62. If you wait beyond your FRA, the benefit will be more — 8 percent more for each year you delay, up to age 70 when maximum is reached. At age 70, your benefit will be about 25 percent more than it would be at your FRA. But a note of caution: any benefit estimates you have now from the Social Security Administration assume you’ll keep earning at your current level until you reach your FRA, so if you work part time starting at age 62 your benefit amounts will be less than those shown in the current estimates.

Finally, the above applies to your own individual Social Security retirement benefit from your own lifetime work record. If you are married, and your PIA is less than 50 percent of your husband’s PIA, then you might also be eligible for a spousal boost from your husband. Or if you are the higher earner, your husband might be eligible for a spousal boost from you when you claim your Social Security benefit.   

Russell Gloor is a certified Social Security advisor with the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). The 2 million member AMAC says it is a senior advocacy organization. Send your questions to: SSadvisor@amacfoundation.org.

Author note: This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation’s staff, trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity.

On Aug. 12, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) published proposed rules with the goal of protecting “employees’ statutory right of free choice on questions concerning representation.” The proposed rules would amend three NLRB policies and practices that are not currently set forth in its rules and regulations: (1) the “blocking charge policy”; (2) the “voluntary recognition bar”; and (3) the standard of proof required to convert a Section 8(f) collective-bargaining relationship into a Section 9(a) bargaining relationship in the construction industry.

The Board’s current “blocking charge policy” allows a union to effectively derail an election by filing an unfair-labor-practice charge that allegedly creates doubt as to the validity of a decertification petition or as to the ability of employees to make a free choice concerning representation. Unions commonly file meritless unfair labor charges to delay decertification elections and certification elections they lack the necessary support to win. This tactic may delay the petitioned-for election for months, or even years. The NLRB’s proposed rule would impose a “vote and impound procedure” under which the election process continues despite the unfair labor-practice charge, the ballots are impounded after the election, and then counted after the charge has been resolved. The rule would also require a party requesting to block an election to file a written offer of proof that includes names of the witnesses who will testify in support of the charge and a summary of each witness’ anticipated testimony. With this rule, the NLRB hopes to prevent unions from filing meritless charges as a strategy to delay elections.

The Board also proposed a rule that would implement its 2007 Dana Corp. decision. In Dana Corp., the NLRB majority held that there would be no bar to an election following an employer’s grant of voluntary recognition unless: (1) affected unit employees receive adequate notice of the recognition and of their opportunity to file a decertification petition or rival union election petition within 45 days; and (2) 45 days pass from the date of the notice without the filing of a petition. The NLRB’s Dana Corp. decision was overruled by a new Board majority in its 2011 Lamons Gasket Company decision. In Lamons Gasket, the NLRB returned to an immediate voluntary recognition bar policy, without the 45-day notice and opportunity to file a decertification petition or rival union election petition. The Board’s proposed rule would overrule Lamons Gasket and codify its holding in Dana Corp.

Finally, the NLRB proposed a rule to change the standard of proof required to convert a Section 8(f) bargaining relationship into a Section 9(a) bargaining relationship in the construction industry. The significance of the distinction between these two different types of bargaining relationships is that a bargaining relationship under Section 9(a) bars subsequent decertification and rival union election petitions for three years, while a Section 8(f) bargaining relationship does not preclude the filing of a subsequent petition for a Board election. Current NLRB case precedent permits employers and unions to convert a Section 8(f) bargaining relationship into a Section 9(a) relationship as long as there is language in the collective-bargaining agreement that the union requested Section 9(a) representative recognition and offered to show evidence of its majority support. The Board’s proposal, if implemented, would raise the standard of proof. Under the proposed rule, the union must be able to present “positive evidence” — apart from contractual language — that the employer unequivocally accepted the union’s demand for Section 9(a) recognition based on a contemporaneous showing of support from a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. In the absence of such evidence, the parties’ relationship will remain a Section 8(f) relationship and there will be no bar to subsequent decertification or rival union-election petitions.

The NLRB’s proposed rule is open to public comments until Oct. 11, 2019. Comments can be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal (https://www.regulations.gov/).      

Justin A. Reyes is an associate attorney in the labor and employment practice of Syracuse–based Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC. He works in the law firm’s Albany office. Contact Reyes at jreyes@bsk.com or (518) 533-3230. This viewpoint article is drawn from the firm’s New York Labor and Employment Law Report blog.

Millennials are on the verge of becoming big players in the investment field. 

Baby boomers, according to Forbes, are about to pass an estimated $30 trillion in assets down to millennials within the next few years. This generational transfer of wealth gives millennials many options on investing — starting with the investment firms they choose.

Understanding millennials’ mindset on investing and, just as importantly, learning their personality traits, preferences and dislikes, are crucial to any investment firm seeking to help them allocate their assets. For starters, millennials’ approach to investing is distinct to previous generations, and they handle money and choose the people who they entrust with that money differently, too. 

Those factors will have several ramifications for how assets are allocated in the next three, five, 10, 20, and 30 years. That’s why discovering how to connect with millennials so that they feel confident enough to trust you with their funds is critical.

How do millennials differ from previous generations, including their investment approach? Here are some revealing distinctions:

They’re more entrepreneurial. Whereas their parents, baby boomers, valued job stability and scaling the corporate ladder, millennials are more inclined to build their own businesses and take greater financial risks. They’re confident that even if they lose some money, they can earn it back — facts firms should consider as they approach this generation and brainstorm investment solutions.

They’re wary of Wall Street. After the Great Recession, many millennials were forced to take on student loans because their parents couldn’t afford college tuitions. So if they’re not entirely warm to the idea of Wall Street, who or what do millennials trust? Where do they see themselves putting the $30 trillion they will one day inherit? Millennial investors favor commodities and options and they’re also more likely to put money in exchange-traded funds than their baby-boomer parents.

They’re impassioned about helping the world. Millennials want to serve a greater purpose to humanity. This common trait has given rise to the concept of “impact investing” — intentionally putting money in companies or organizations that offer a financial return but also contribute funds toward creating a positive social or environmental impact.

They often don’t trust advisors. According to an Accenture Consulting study, called “Millennials & Money,” 57 percent of millennials don’t trust advisors, believing they’re in it more for self-serving purposes than for their clients’ best interests. What they want is someone who wants to build a relationship with them and works toward gaining their trust.

 So knowing how millennials and their investment thoughts are unique, how should investment firms navigate this young crowd of investors and best position themselves to reap the business of this generation, both today and in the coming years? 

Create trust and be transparent. Investment firms can build a foundation to better serve the millennial generation by fostering relationships, customizing your advice, and being clear about fees. For example, millennials, unlike baby boomers, prefer flat fees over commission-based pay models; that’s what they’re most familiar with through the advents of Uber and Netflix.

Explore technology. Millennials like technology but they also like simplicity and convenience. Look for ways to leverage technology to make experiences simpler, more self-serving, and more convenient for millennial users. Robo-advisors and digital investment content platforms and tools are just the start of the options available to explore. If they find it inconvenient or complicated to do business with you, they’ll do it with someone else.

Be a great communicator. While technology and self-service drive them, millennials also appreciate a human touch in the investment space, meaning a hybrid of tech and human would be the ideal mix for them. Find out how your millennial client likes to communicate — by text, email, messaging via a digital investment-content platform, or on the phone. And when you are communicating, remember to be an advisor, not a dictator. Millennials appreciate insight, but they still like to be the one controlling decisions that impact them.

Use data to customize recommendations. Track clients’ online activity to gather data about them and use this in conjunction with their personal preferences to send them customized investment ideas, alerts, and recommended products.

It comes down to this: Millennials and baby boomers are as different as rotary phones and text messages, and newspapers and podcasts. And they’re just as varied in their viewpoints of success and allocation of material wealth.

Therefore, if advisors truly want to stay relevant in the investment game, they’ll have to work hard to build rapport with this generation and show good will to retain them as clients — both currently and into the future.      

Gui Costin (www.guicostin.com), author of “Millennials Are Not Aliens,” is an entrepreneur, and founder of Dakota, a company that sells and markets institutional investment strategies.