Category: Benefits & Retirement
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Divorced after at least 10 years, you can claim up to half an ex-spouse’s Social Security
One of the most overlooked benefits Social Security pays is one many divorced people assume they lost in the divorce. If your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you may be able to claim a benefit worth up to half of your ex-spouse’s full retirement amount — and doing so takes nothing away from your…
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A Trump order opens the door for 401(k) plans to hold private equity and crypto
The menu of investments inside a 401(k) may be about to widen, and not everything on the new menu is simple. A Trump executive order directed federal regulators to make it easier for workplace retirement plans to offer alternative assets — private equity, real estate, and digital assets like crypto — and the Labor Department…
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A hospital leaving your Medicare Advantage network can push your out-of-pocket cap from $5,421 to $9,825
A Medicare Advantage plan comes with a promise most people rarely test: a hard ceiling on what a bad health year can cost you. What fewer members realize is that the ceiling has two heights, and which one applies depends on whether your care stays inside the plan’s network. When a hospital drops out of…
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The 2027 Social Security raise is now projected at 3.6 percent, about $70 more a month
The early read on next year’s Social Security raise is now 3.6 percent, and on the average retirement check that works out to roughly $70 more a month. It would be the biggest cost-of-living bump in a few years, larger than the 2.8 percent that took effect this January. But the figure is an estimate,…
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Social Security can now withhold half your monthly check to recover an overpayment
If a letter from Social Security says you were overpaid, the amount it can take back out of your next check is no longer a small slice. For overpayment notices dated on or after April 25, 2025, the agency’s default is to hold back up to half of a retirement, survivors, or disability benefit each…
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Social Security just added 14 conditions to the list that fast-tracks a disability decision
Six to eight months. That, by Social Security’s own estimate, is how long a first decision on a disability application generally takes. For a household where the earner has already stopped working, that is not an administrative detail. It is most of a year with no paycheck and nothing arriving to replace it. On August…
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Medicare’s negotiated price for the inhaler Breo Ellipta is $67 a month starting January 1, down from a $397 list price
There is a specific group of people for whom this number means something immediately: the 626,000 Medicare Part D enrollees who filled a Breo Ellipta prescription in a single year, most of them managing COPD or asthma. Starting January 1, 2027, Medicare’s negotiated price for a 30-day supply of that inhaler is $67. The 2024…
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A subsidy holding down standalone Medicare drug-plan premiums ends after this year
Every fall, before open enrollment opens, your Medicare drug plan mails you an Annual Notice of Change. Most people skim it. This year, if you are in a standalone prescription drug plan rather than a Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage, the premium line is worth a slower read, because a federal support that has…
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Fairview stops scheduling UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage patients on January 1, and names three insurers it will still take
If you carry a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage card in Minnesota, this change will most likely reach you at a scheduling desk. You call to book a follow-up for next spring, you read off the name printed on the card, and the answer is that the appointment cannot be made. M Health Fairview has put the…
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Ohio State’s hospitals go out of network with 16 Humana plans on October 1
Take the Humana card out of your wallet and read the plan name printed on it. The full name is what matters here, not just the word “Humana,” because Ohio State has published a list of sixteen specific Humana plans and the list is the whole story. On October 1, 2026, every plan on it…
