AARP survey gives advisors an opening on Social Security

Ninety-five percent of U.S. adults tell AARP that Social Security is important. Seventy-four percent say it covers basic living expenses in retirement. But ask about the details and the answers under age 50 fall apart. Only 61% of younger respondents know Social Security pays people who can no longer work because of a serious disability. Among those 50 and older, the share who know that is 84%. Survivor benefits are even less understood. Just 41% of younger adults realize that children can collect after a parent dies. Among older adults, 64% do.

The gap matters for planning. Advisors who run retirement-income projections with clients in their 40s and 50s routinely build in spousal and survivor claiming strategies. The survey suggests many of those clients have no idea those protections exist. The numbers are a natural way to pull up the household's actual benefit statement — what a surviving spouse would receive, what a disabled adult child might qualify for — instead of assuming the client understands how the program works.

The survey lands as Congress debates how to fix the program's finances. The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony this month on whether a bipartisan commission or regular legislative procedures should produce a solvency plan; AARP's Nancy LeaMond testified against a separate commission, arguing Congress can strengthen the program without cutting benefits. Ninety-one percent of respondents say protecting Social Security for future generations matters. For advisors, the Washington debate should stay in the background. The filing age the client chooses is what actually moves household income.