Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
Medicare’s 2027 plan-change notices land by September 30, and ignoring yours can lock you into a costlier plan
Sometime before September 30, a plain envelope from a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan reaches millions of mailboxes and gets set aside unopened. Inside...
Full retirement age has reached 67, and claiming at 62 now locks in a check about 30% smaller for life
Full retirement age has finished its long climb to 67. For everyone born in 1960 or later, the age at which Social Security pays a...
Divorced spouses married at least 10 years can claim up to half an ex’s Social Security, with no hit to the ex
A marriage that ended decades ago can still pay a monthly Social Security check. A divorced person who was married at least 10 years can...
A child can collect Social Security on a retired, disabled, or deceased parent’s record
Social Security lives in most people’s minds as a retirement check, but a substantial share of its payments go to children. When a parent begins...
About 2 million seniors skip $11.4 billion in Medicare Extra Help drug savings yearly
An estimated two million older Americans who qualify for Medicare’s Extra Help program never enroll in it, and the savings they leave unclaimed add up...
A retiree hit with a high Medicare premium after a one-time income spike can appeal it with Form SSA-44
A retiree whose Medicare premium jumps after a single unusual year of income, a home sale, a large Roth conversion, or the year work finally...
A surviving spouse who waits until survivor full retirement age can collect 100% of a late partner’s check
A surviving spouse who waits until reaching survivor full retirement age can collect the deceased partner’s Social Security benefit in full, the entire amount the...
Medicare’s out-of-pocket drug cap drops to $2,400 in 2027, then covered prescriptions cost nothing
Medicare’s cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs, a limit that did not exist a few years ago, brings the ceiling on covered drugs down to $2,400...
New Jersey seniors can stack three programs for thousands in property-tax relief
New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the country, but its seniors now have an unusually powerful counterweight: three separate relief programs...
As Medicare Advantage insurers drop more 2027 plans, being cut guarantees you the right to buy any Medigap policy
Medicare Advantage insurers are pruning their 2027 lineups, and for the members caught in the cuts, the bad news comes wrapped around a rare piece...
A 3.6% Social Security raise would add about $75 a month next year, the biggest increase since 2023
Social Security’s yearly raise for 2027 is shaping up to be the largest in years. After the July inflation report, the Senior Citizens League estimates...
Owners of Pixel phones, Nest Hubs and Google Home speakers can claim up to $56 from a $68 million privacy settlement by August 27
Owners of Google-made devices have less than two weeks to claim a slice of a $68 million privacy settlement, and for many the payout requires...
Federal prosecutors say elder-fraud losses keep climbing, and a credit freeze is the free step that blocks new-account theft
Federal authorities keep warning that the money older Americans lose to fraud is climbing, and one of the few defenses against a large slice of...
The Fed is now more likely to raise rates than cut them next month, so locking a CD near 4.5% looks smart
The Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate unchanged at a range of 3.50 to 3.75 percent at the end of July, but the debate inside...
Seniors reporting six-figure losses to government and business impostors lost about $445 million in a single year
The size of the checks older Americans are losing to scammers has grown far faster than the number of victims, and the clearest measure sits...
A Pennsylvania man was indicted for draining over $1 million from one elderly victim
A York County, Pennsylvania man now faces federal fraud charges after prosecutors said he talked a woman in her late 80s and her family out...