Nearly everyone approaching retirement is worried about Social Security — but far fewer are actually planning for it. According to an AARP survey, 90% of Americans aged 50-plus are concerned their benefits won’t be enough, yet fewer than half (47%) have even estimated what their future Social Security benefits will be, and only 45% have reviewed their earnings record in the past three years. Instead, people are far more likely to check savings and investment balances, leaving one of the most important retirement income decisions — when and how to claim Social Security — largely unexamined.
An AgeTech Collaborative™ (ATC) startup participant, the National Association of Registered Social Security Analysts (NARSSA, or as it's abbreviated in the ATC ecosystem, RSSA) is a professional education, technology and advocacy organization focused on advancing Social Security literacy and informed decision-making by making it clear, accessible and actionable for every American.
As the governing body behind the Registered Social Security Analyst® (RSSA®) designation, NARSSA also equips financial, insurance, tax, legal, benefits and other professionals with the education, software and professional standards needed to help their clients navigate the most critical component of retirement planning for most Americans: Social Security.
Ted Rosedale, NARSSA’s COO, spent time with us discussing the organization’s RSSA training program, its collaboration with other ATC organizations, and its vision for helping every American optimize their Social Security benefits.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Please tell us about NARSSA.
We are on a mission to ensure that every American has access to clear, personalized Social Security guidance so they can make the best decisions when it comes to claiming their Social Security benefits. How and when to claim those benefits are among the most crucial decisions to make when it comes to retirement, and we want to make sure people get all that they’re entitled to from this government program.
To that end, we developed an educational program that trains certified public accountants (CPAs), financial advisors, wealth managers and other professionals to become go-to experts on Social Security by becoming a Registered Social Security Analyst, a credential that we created. Professionals take our training program online — and it’s a difficult program — then register to take the national proctored exam to become an RSSA. The RSSA credential is the stamp of approval that lets consumers know they have a professional advisor with advanced knowledge of Social Security.
Besides the RSSA training program, you have software to help both professionals and consumers navigate Social Security.
We have a software package called the RSSA Roadmap, which professionals can use to work with their clients to help them optimize their Social Security benefits. We also have direct-to-consumer software that allows everyday people to do their own Social Security planning. We also provide opportunities for users to speak with an RSSA for live support.
From the consumer angle, how does the software work?
It’s similar to the way people use TurboTax to do their taxes. We ask a lot of relevant questions about you, a spouse and any dependents, and we can enable you to import your historical earnings record directly from your Social Security account. With our software, you can also enter estimated future earnings. The software then shows all the options available to you — you can even view a heat map that shows the different scenarios that intersect at different ages between 62 and 70.
We’re aiming to present to people the most accurate projection of what their Social Security strategy can look like. Often people just think, “I’ve paid into Social Security, and one day I’ll collect it” — and they’ll leave it at that. But there are many ways to optimize Social Security benefits, and in many cases, people are leaving money on the table. It all comes down to this: Everyday people don’t know the rules, and their advisors might not understand the rules, either. That’s why this education is so critical, because when it comes to making a decision about claiming Social Security, you only have one chance to get it right.
What was the catalyst for founding NARSSA?
One of the co-founders is Michael Rosedale, a CPA who also happens to be my father. His clients kept coming to him with questions about Social Security, and while he did have some knowledge to offer, he often ended up sending them directly to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for answers. But he began to wonder, “As a CPA, why am I sending people to the SSA for help? Would I send people to the IRS for tax advice? If I don’t have the knowledge, who does?”
That was the spark for understanding that CPAs and other professionals needed some kind of program to empower them to understand Social Security so they could better help their clients. So he reached out to Martha Shedden, who had been leading continuing education courses focused on Social Security, and together they founded the company.
Many people treat Social Security almost as an afterthought, even though it’s such an important aspect to their long-term financial health. Why do you think that is?
That’s a tough question! Just about every American pays into Social Security from just about every paycheck. Yet at the end of the day, there are a lot of complex variables: Are you single or married? Widowed? Divorced? Do you have a child with disabilities? Social Security benefits can depend on these and other situations, because Social Security is not just about retirement. Plus, people can become confused if their advisor gave them a strategy that wasn’t based on a thorough analysis of all the possible factors. The bottom line is that there are a ton of opportunities to help people understand how Social Security impacts them.
How are you working with other organizations in the AgeTech Collaborative ecosystem?
The ATC ecosystem offers some enormous opportunities for collaboration. We made a connection with another company in the ATC and did a small pilot with them: They put NARSSA on the homepage of their website, giving their users access to our Social Security planning tool for free. That was great for us, and it benefitted that company and its users, too. We’re always looking to work with organizations that have access to consumer channels, in order to spread the word to people who might not understand how Social Security impacts their health and retirement.
What’s next up for NARSSA?
The SSA is amazing at what they do, but we’re able to complement that by training professionals so that people have someone to turn to for help — because at the end of the day, we want to help as many Americans as possible have a support system for Social Security. We envision getting in front of more organizations and employer groups who want to help their members navigate Social Security for retirement or other unique situations because everyone, regardless of their situation, should have clear and effective guidance to help them make the best Social Security decisions for them.
Visit NARSSA’s website to learn more about the organization, and check out our Startup Directory to discover more startup participants in the AgeTech Collaborative.
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