Digital security has never been so important or perhaps so easy. You can unlock your phone with your fingerprint or your face. You can use a password manager to store all your login credentials behind a single master password. And you can secure many online accounts with two-factor authentication (where a website sends a one-time code to your phone). But all that security comes at a cost when you die or become incapacitated. If you haven’t planned ahead, your loved ones could find themselves shut out of your digital accounts. And that could cause problems ranging from the trivial (their losing access to your Netflix watchlist) to the tragic (their losing access to your family photos on Flickr). They may not even know which financial or retail accounts you have, since so many companies encourage customers to sign up for email delivery of statements.

Welcome to the new frontier of digital estate planning.

Faced with a significant number of employees at or nearing retirement, and the resulting loss of valuable older workers, U.S. employers are rethinking their approach to managing the retirement patterns of their workforces, according to a new survey by Willis Towers Watson. The 2018 Longer Working Careers Survey found the vast majority of employers (83%) have a significant number of employees at or nearing retirement. However, only half (53%) express having a good understanding of when their employees will retire. Additionally, while 81% of employers say managing the timing of their employees’ retirements is an important business issue, only 25% do this effectively.

Rising life expectancy means that many more Americans will reach very old ages. While longer lives are undeniably positive, they also mean that more people will face late-life financial risks for which they may be unprepared. These late-life risks include high out-of-pocket medical expenses, an increased possibility of financial mistakes due to declining cognitive abilities, and the specter of widowhood.

When you dive into popular literature on retirement, you could be forgiven for thinking there are hordes of Americans in their late 50s or early 60s desperate to leave the paid workforce as soon as they can. Blog posts and academic studies beg people to hold off on collecting Social Security until the age of 70, so they can maximize their benefits. Few listen. The most common age to file for Social Security is 62.

When you ask your clients to think about retirement, what words and images come to mind? Usually they will paint a positive experience with words like relax, fun, happy. Why is it then that a large number of retirees are not as happy in retirement as they predicted? According to a research report from SSA, one of the main reasons is “affective forecasting.”

Happy New Year from the staff at Horsesmouth and Savvy Social Security! May the year ahead be filled with personal growth, learning, and camaraderie. We know you’ll keep helping clients prepare for retirement, and it’s going to be a busy year in Washington and state capitals for policymakers working to improve the retirement security of millions of Americans. Here is a look at crucial retirement policy topics to watch in the year ahead.

In the spirit of the season, here are 12 reasons to give thanks for Social Security:

As Congress and the president battle it out and the government shuts down, millions of Americans worry about what it means for them, especially the Social Security checks, Medicare, and Medicaid that they rely on, particularly during the holiday season. The good news is that Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare payments won’t be interrupted by the partial shutdown. All three programs are considered mandatory spending and are not affected by a federal budget debate. New applicants to the programs, however, may experience delays in processing. The U.S. Postal Service will also remain funded, so checks should arrive in the mail on time.

The golden years look very different depending on where in the world you are, and, increasingly, which generation you are in. Aging populations and decreasing birthrates are spurring countries across the globe to reassess how retirement works—and what needs to change in order to extend the benefits available today to future retirees.

Raising the retirement age is one Social Security reform measure that continually gets proposed. But according to Richard W. Johnson, an economist at the Urban Institute who specializes in employment and retirement decisions made by older Americans, raising the retirement age would inflict serious harm on roughly one-quarter of Social Security beneficiaries.

Even when their wealth would allow them to retire comfortably, many clients postpone leaving the working world. Recent academic studies observed the increased workforce participation of the retirement-aged population in the United States over the past three decades, trying to figure out why so many people want to keep working beyond the age of 65.

Social Security might have a shot at surviving for another generation, and that’s thanks to 78.1 million individuals who will be contributing to it—the generation after millennials, those who were born after 1997 and make up what is known as Generation Z.

Social Security has closed 67 field offices since fiscal 2010 in rural and urban areas alike. For the public, the cuts have meant less access to field offices, and ballooning wait times in the remaining 1,229 offices and on the agency’s toll-free line. It also has meant long delays in hearings on disability insurance appeals and in resolving benefit errors.

According to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, no social program does more for the American public than Social Security. Yet, there’s always debate over just how much Social Security actually does for the average retired worker. After all, in September 2018, the average retired worker was bringing home just $1,417.22 a month, or a little over $17,000 a year, based on data from the Social Security Administration. That doesn’t seem like a lot of money considering that many of these workers potentially paid into the system for three, four, or even five decades. Read on to find out why you're probably getting your money’s worth from Social Security.

Survey after survey reveals that millennials are resigned to the idea that Social Security, as we know it, might not be there by the time they reach retirement age. However, Social Security is not a hot-button issue for them. Benefits seem foreign and too distant to young workers. Yet the future of Social Security hinges on energizing those millennials to be concerned about this dilemma. And the way to do this is by making the issues around fixing Social Security relatable to them.

As part of ongoing research into public attitudes about long-term health care in the U.S., AP-NORC conducted the poll to learn more about the stresses and burdens caregivers experience as they help their disabled loved ones remain living in their homes and communities. In earlier research, AP-NORC learned that about 40 percent of Americans have experience providing long-term care to an older family member or friend.

Happy Thanksgiving from all the staff here at Horsesmouth. We hope that you, your families, and your clients have a wonderful holiday season. In honor of the holiday we are stepping away from retirement news to bring you former Senior Editor Nicole Coulter’s 10 tips for feeling more gratitude this holiday season:

74% of parents in a recent T. Rowe Price survey said that saving for college was a higher priority for them than saving for retirement. It’s an understandable mistake: college is more immediate and top of mind. But many financial advisors are trying to remind parents that retirement is more important.

Married couples don’t necessarily know what the other spouse is thinking about retirement. This insight came out of a new Fidelity Investments survey that asked some 1,600 people if they knew when their significant other planned to retire. Only 43 percent answered the question correctly. This disconnect reveals just how few couples are talking about retirement, said Fidelity spokesman Ted Mitchell, who worked on the survey.

Many advisors hear high earning clients and prospects tell them, “Social Security isn’t for me. I can’t count on it.” Okay, says this well-paid doctor, but you’ll be missing out. Here’s his argument for why even those who make a lot of money—and theoretically have a lot of savings—should consider Social Security as part of their retirement plan.