The number of people filing for bankruptcy protection in retirement has soared in recent years — even before the recession.
In fact, people 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the population seeking bankruptcy protection, according to a recent study from the University of Michigan Law School.
The problem is simple math, said Johanna Sweaney Salt, a CPA with Kaufman, Schmid, Gray & Salt in Claremont, Calif. Their medical expenses, taxes and other costs keep going up, while their income is going down. Social Security hasn’t had a cost-of-living adjustment in a long time and pensions and retirement accounts took a huge hit during the recession. Reverse mortgages and other alternatives presented to them as "solutions" often just dig them further in the hole.
"Most people think ‘Oh, I have Medicare — I’m covered,’" said Jean Setzfand, director of financial security at the AARP. "But in fact, there are quite a lot of out-of-pocket expenses — and those continue to rise." The biggest one, she said, is long-term care costs. Plus, a lot more people are going into retirement carrying a mortgage. So it is not so good as we think
Technorati Tags: bankruptcy protection, claremont, cost of living adjustment, cpa, fastest growing segment, filing for bankruptcy, financial security, johanna, kaufman, medical expenses, medicare, michigan law school, pensions, pocket expenses, recession, retirement accounts, reverse mortgages, schmid, university of michigan, university of michigan law school