July 14, 2024
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates.
- Cleaned up some spacing issues and other minor usability improvements.
June 22, 2024
- Fixed issue where the break even age shown in the PDF was the age attained in the break-even year, not necessarily the age attained in the break-even month.
April 28, 2024
- Improved visual display and accessibility when there are validation issues with input fields
April 21, 2024
- Fixed issue where child ages were sometimes shown as age attained during the year instead of age on current day.
- Fixed issue with keyboard navigation of tabbed interfaces.
April 14, 2024
- We significantly improved the ability to use keyboard navigation throughout the app, so you can access all functionality without relying on a mouse or touchpad.
March 24, 2024
- Fixed some minor accessibility issues on the website.
March 17, 2024
- Several improvements to reports and report configuration screens for better usability and a more modern, consistent design.
March 10, 2024
- Improved stability by resolving an issue that was causing very infrequent outages that prevented customers from accessing the system for a short time.
February 20, 2024
- Errors would occur when downloading PDFs in certain cases with children in the family. This issue has been resolved.
February 18, 2024
- For children, you can now indicate on which adult's record the child is eligible for Social Security benefits. We default to assuming the child is eligible for benefits from both parents (except when there is only one adult in the family).
- Fixed an issue preventing display of detail tables on some phones. Our minimum supported screen width for tables, to ensure quality of user experience, remains 768 pixels. Most phones support this width in landscape mode.
January 21, 2024
- Improved table display in reports, providing a better experience on smaller screens, down to 768 pixels wide
January 7, 2024
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates.
January 1, 2024
Annual Updates
- 2023 CPI-U and chained CPI-U
- 2024 Contribution and Benefit Base
- 2024 Earnings required for a quarter of coverage
- 2023 COLA
- 2023 Retirement Earnings Test Annual Exempt Amounts
- 2023 WEP Substantial Earnings
- 2023 Real wage Differential
- 2022 Average Wage Index
December 30, 2023
- Fixed issue with CSV earnings files with some file extensions not importing properly
December 20, 2023
- We made a large number of design, usability, and accessibility enhancements.
December 3, 2023
- Fixed an issue with an unsaved changes alert showing up when first saving disability benefit information
- Improved general usability, accessibility, and design throughout app
November 11, 2023
- In partnered cases, the reported child benefit(s) may be based on the earnings record of either adult roles. If only one role has started retirement benefits, then it will be based on that role. If both have started retirement benefits, then the larger of the two available benefits in a given month is used.. Previously, any available child benefits from each role was reported simultaneously.
October 29, 2023
- We now directly support entry of non-covered retirement accounts (such as 403b) in the pensions area
October 1, 2023
- Improved styling and formatting of rollover labels in charts. Amounts for both maximized and what-if plan are shown.
September 24, 2023
- A bug in Safari/webkit was causing a blank screen on older Macs and iOS devices. This is now fixed.
- Fixed an issue where clearing benefit information caused an error if you subsequently attempted to import or enter earnings.
September 17, 2023
- We now support direct entry of past lump-sum pensions for employment not taxed by Social Security.
- Enhanced the client menu for PRO users to show more clients, improve sorting, and allow for bulk delete of clients.
- On the family overview screen, the age shown for adults was the age attained in the current year, we now show the age as of the current day.
September 3, 2023
- Fixed an issue with help items not appearing properly on the Longevity and Alternative Plans reports in Maximize My Social Security PRO.
August 23, 2023
- New! Added breakeven date (month/year) to the Annual Benefit line chart. A dashed vertical line now shows the point in time that the Maximized plan achieves parity with the What-If plan in terms of present value. If the Maximized and What-If plans are identical solutions, no breakeven date will be shown.
May 14, 2023
- Fixed a problem where the PDF report would not display properly in recent versions of Safari.
May 7, 2023
- We now require entry of an ex spouse's expected or actual Social Security retirement benefit file date, rather than defaulting to full retirement age.
February 19, 2023
- PRO edition: We've enhanced the client menu for customers who are part of Organizations. Your families that are shared with others are clearly marked, and you can now select from a list of members of your Organization to see the list of families they have shared with you.
- We now make a usage report available for enterprise Single Sign On administrators.
- Fixed an issue where the view of Nominal Safe Rate of Return for Regular Assets was not rounding properly in some cases.
February 12, 2023
- For PRO users: Implemented a new client list that includes the ability to sort based on the date clients were created or last updated.
- We now show pension start year when displaying pension summary information.
January 29, 2023
- For enterprise Single Sign On users, based on data from your directory we can now automatically create Organizations and assign members to those organizations upon login.
- Fixed an issue where a Social Security past earnings record derived from benefit information could be understated if already receiving Retirement benefits and also set to suspend Retirement benefits in the future.
- Fixed an issue where the maximized Social Security solution could vary slightly depending on how the what-if Retirement benefit file date was set.
January 22, 2023
- For PRO users: Organizations can now be set to either "user-to-user" sharing (the default, where you specifically choose which clients to share with which other members of the organization) and our new setting "share all" where all members of the organization can automatically view and edit other members' clients.
- We no longer collect or store child names.
January 8, 2023
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates.
- We now detect, and prevent reports from running, when Last Year with Earnings is in the past and is not consistent with entered earnings because earnings extend beyond that year.
January 1, 2023
Annual Updates
- 2022 CPI-U and chained CPI-U
- 2023 Contribution and Benefit Base
- 2023 Earnings required for a quarter of coverage
- 2022 COLA
- 2022 Retirement Earnings Test Annual Exempt Amounts
- 2022 WEP Substantial Earnings
- 2022 Real wage Differential
- 2021 Average Wage Index
September 18, 2022
- Importing past earnings from CSV would also import current/future earnings if there were any in the CSV file. This is now fixed.
September 5, 2022
- Fixed an issue with Social Security benefit dates in rare instances being forced into the past due to Social Security's deeming rules.
- Fixed an issue that was causing periodic gateway timeout errors when running reports.
August 2, 2022
- In specific divorced cases, the provided WIB date may have limited the maximized solution.
July 24, 2022
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates
May 8, 2022
- Fixed PDF language that referred to Full Retirement Age benefit estimates rather than age 70 benefit estimates
- Fixed error when setting benefit end age for child with future birthdate
April 25, 2022
- Allow entry of “end benefits age” for permanently disabled children expected to leave care at a certain age or predecease both parents
- Disallowed editing of family name if the family is shared with you
February 27, 2022
- We now collect the full date of a divorce, when applicable, rather than just month and year. Date of divorce is used to calculate the date of entitlement to divorced spousal Social Security benefits when an ex-spouse has not filed for retirement benefits.
January 29, 2022
- We improved the rounding of the PIA to better align benefits with the Social Security Administration.
January 9, 2022
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates
January 1, 2022
Annual Updates
- 2021 CPI-U and chained CPI-U
- 2022 Contribution and Benefit Base
- 2022 Earnings required for a quarter of coverage
- 2021 COLA
- 2021 Retirement Earnings Test Annual Exempt Amounts
- 2021 WEP Substantial Earnings
- 2021 Real wage Differential
- 2020 Average Wage Index
November 14, 2021
- Future Social Security benefit changes can now be entered with up to one digit precision.
- We now check the status of reports more frequently to improve responsiveness.
August 15, 2021
- Entering invalid characters into grids would cause an error, but now will just revert to the default value for the grid.
- Clearing amounts from lump sum or annual amounts when editing a pension would cause an error but now default to $0.
July 11, 2021
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates
June 14, 2021
- Professional customers can now create Organizations. With Organizations, you can share client data between different PRO users and can reassign ownership of family data to other PRO users, for example in situations where an advisor has left the firm or is on vacation. Sharing family data can be useful in many situations, such as to allow a senior advisor to review the work of junior advisors, or when an assistant updates financial data for a family before the advisor runs a report. Note that all members of an organization must have an active PRO license for our software.
- You can now export a Social Security earnings record as a comma-separated values (CSV) file and re-import it. This is helpful in cases where for any reason you need to delete and re-enter family data. You can now save and re-import the earnings without having to download from the Social Security Administration site.
January 20, 2021
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates
December 31, 2020
- Annual update for Social Security
December 15, 2020
- Fixed - Child benefit from lower PIA parent may be assigned to disabled adult child during survivor years if child receives DIB on own record
November 1, 2020
- Fixed issues with downloading PDFs in certain browser and plugin configurations
October 11, 2020
- Added an idle timer to log out after period of inactivity
- We now prefill the current client name in the help widget contact form for pro users
September 25, 2020
- Some videos and images were not displaying in popups and the help widget, this has been corrected.
August 30, 2020
- Hid profile question in help widget contact panel when the user does not have more than one family
- Added link to support portal from welcome screen and family overview screen
August 16, 2020
- Adjusted help widget so it doesn't interfere with clicking on elements next to it
- Fixed an issue with occasional "gateway timeout" errors when waiting for long-running report
July 12, 2020
- Semi-annual update to default inflation and nominal interest rates, which are now set at 1.5%
- Fixed an issue with text size in charts
June 28, 2020
- We've upgraded our customer support capabilities with a new fully searchable knowledge base easily accessible as a popup in the bottom right corner of any screen on both the website and in the tool. You can also now submit a question directly from that help popup.
- Social Security widow(er) benefits were overstated after retirement benefits started when widow(er) benefits were reduced for age, GPO applied, and work deductions applied to the widow(er) benefit. This has been fixed.
May 10, 2020
- Default Rate Updates
As you know, the economy has been dramatically altered by the Coronavirus. In particular, long-term interest rates as well as the projected inflation rate have dropped substantially. In light of this, we've decided to reduce our nominal rate of returnand inflation rate assumptions. Our default values had been 2.5% and 3.5%, respectively, for a real interest rate close to 1%. We have now changed both of those to 1.25% for a real interest rate of 0%. You can find a more detailed discussion of these settings by clicking the help question mark icon on the Settings screen. Briefly, we base the Nominal Safe Rate of Return on the 30-year nominal Treasury bond yield. To determine long-term inflation expectations we now subtract the 30-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) yield from the Treasury bond yield. - Improved some error messages related to past and future dates in Social Security filing date entry.
April 12, 2020
- We now provide more specific detail of the problem(s) and steps to correct if Disability Benefit entry is blocked.
- An error would sometimes occur while trying to to add Social Security benefits for a deceased spouse. This has been fixed.
March 22, 2020
- We now avoid error messages when entering disability benefit date for someone whose retirement benefit date is not set to full retirement age.
- In some situations, if setup was abandoned part way through with earnings history partially entered, it would be hidden from view, we now show the entered earnings.
- During year end rollover past non-covered earnings could end up hidden from view and could not be cleared, this is now fixed.
March 8, 2020
- Display age by birthdate on detailed data entry screens
- Clarify text in the Social Security What-If Filing Dates guide related to entering past dates
- Certain login situations could result in redirect loop if using cached code. This has been fixed.
March 1, 2020
- Clarified where to enter existing Social Security Spousal and Widow(er)'s benefit dates.
- Improved accessibility by increasing contrast between text and background colors.
- Clarified help text related to steps to take when needing to add high school graduation date to child.
- Improved log out process so if there is more than one tab open, all tabs are logged out if one logs out.
- New tabs opened up by Control- or Command-clicking a link will now automatically log in on the new tab.
- Implemented new terms of service.
- Fixed certain situations where a "Transition error: cannot transition to abstract state" error was shown.
- Prevented unnecessary display of report errors when navigating off of the report screen when a report is running.
- Fixed grammatical errors in Social Security deeming messages when no names are present for spouses.
- Benefit information provided in lieu of past earnings would sometimes continue displaying even after cleared. This is fixed.
- Logging in on two tabs was resulting in Access Denied on first tab, this is fixed.
- Could not be logged in to MaxiFi in one tab and Maximize My Social Security in another. This is now fixed.
January 1, 2020
Happy New Year! Here are some updates to start the year:
- Updated all Social Security parameters.
- Updated the annual CPI-U and the Chained CPI-U with estimated values for December.
December 29, 2019
We've made several updates and improvements throughout the year and in years past. Starting today, we'll post information here on the Release Notes page so you can be more aware of changes in our software.
Today we released several important improvements to our handling of Social Security benefits for children:
- We now consider each child’s own disability benefit (DIB) and/or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) when determining their Childhood Disability Benefit (CDB) and the maximized family strategy.
- We allow you to specify if a child is in care and if you want to be entitled to child-in-care spouse's benefits.
- Each child's full birthday and/or Month/Year of High School graduation is used to determine the end of their child benefits (before, just the year of birth was used).
- Each child's full birthday is used to determine end of child-in-care spouse's benefits (before, just the year of birth was used).