Jim Blankenship

Tom,

Technically, yes, an advisor like Bernie Madoff could be on this site. One of the biggest issues that investors with Madoff faced was due to the fact that there were no third parties involved in the process. By this I mean that Madoff handled all of the investments within his firm - not via an outside custodian, for example.

One way to guard against being caught in such a trap would be to ensure that your advisor works through a third party (a separate entity from the advisory) - in order to ensure that at least two sets of eyes are looking at your accounts and the investments in the accounts. Typically you would receive a separate statement from the third party custodian showing your investment account, which would be audited by the third party custodian's internal and external auditors, independent of the advisor.

Although there are bound to be ways yet unknown to still pull off a scam, if there are two independent entities involved in the process the likelihood is lessened greatly.

I probably haven't covered all the bases, but that's my opinion on the matter.

jb

False.

The Social Security benefit is based upon the average of the 35 highest earning years between 22 and 62 years of age, indexed against an average wage indexing series normalized to the worker's age 60. This average is then divided by 12 to come up with the Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) for the individual.

Then (hold onto your hat!), bend points are applied to the AIME. For 2013, this means that the first $791 of the AIME is multiplied by 90%; the amount between $791 and $4,768 is multiplied by 32%; any amount above $4,768 is multiplied by 15%. These three figures are added together, and the result is known as the Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA.

The PIA is the base figure for calculating benefits - this represents the amount that the individual would receive in a monthly benefit if he or she filed for Social Security benefits at Full Retirement Age (FRA) - age 66 for someone born between 1943 and 1954. If the individual files before FRA, the benefit will be reduced from the PIA figure, and if he or she delays filing for benefits to some date after FRA, the benefit received will be more than the PIA.

There are other factors that could reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits, but that's the basics.

I realize you asked what time it is and received the instructions for building a Mayan calendar - sorry, but I didn't want to oversimplify the answer. Suffice it to say that it's complicated, and you can get your PIA estimate from the Social Security Administration website - www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement/.

jb