There are many people from our area that have served in the United States armed forces. These individuals and their families make great sacrifices, but they do get certain rewards for their service.
Most people are aware of the fact that people that spend at least 20 years on active duty become eligible for a retirement pension. If you join up, the longer you stay in, the higher the pension amount will be when you put your military career behind you.
This provides a clear pathway toward a comfortable retirement. A person could retire after 20 years or so with the minimum pension and then embark on a career in the private sector with a check or direct deposit coming in every month along with his or her salary.
Another option would be to stay in the military until you become old enough to collect your full Social Security benefit. At that point, you would have two sources of income, and your military pension would be maximized after 40 years of service.
You would also be eligible for military health care benefits and Medicare, so you would be poised to enjoy your golden years without any financial concerns.
In addition to this pension, there is another type of veterans pension that can be available to some veterans. As elder law attorneys, it is relevant to our field, and we will provide an explanation here.
Supplemental Income for Wartime Veterans
The benefit we are referring to is called the supplemental income retirement pension. Unlike the other pension, you do not have to compile an extensive length of service record to gain eligibility.
If you entered the military prior to September of 1980, and you served for at least 90 days when the country was at war for at least one of these days, you have served long enough to potentially qualify for this special pension.
It is potentially available to qualified veterans that are 65 years of age or older and veterans of all ages that are totally and permanently disabled. This benefit is intended for veterans with a modicum of financial need, so there is a limit on countable assets that stands at $129,094 for the rest of 2019.
A single veteran could be entitled to a monthly benefit of $1881 at the time of this writing, and a veteran that is married could be eligible for a $2230 benefit each month. There is also a provision for a surviving spouse that needs living assistance. A qualified survivor could receive as much as $1209 per month under currently existing guidelines.
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If you go through it, you will definitely gain a more comprehensive understanding of where you stand, and where you need to be when it comes to estate planning. To get your copy of the report, visit our worksheet download page and follow the simple instructions.
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