Philip Moeller

Philip Moeller

Philip Moeller Biography & Books

Speaker Biography:

Philip Moeller is the co-author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller, GET WHAT’S YOURS: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security, the indispensable guide to retiring with all the Social Security benefits earned over a lifetime of work, published by Simon & Schuster.  His next project will be GET WHAT’S YOURS – Medicare: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Medicare Coverage, to be published in 2016 by Simon & Schuster.

Moeller writes about retirement for Money magazine, the PBS website Making Sen$e (Ask Phil the Medicare Maven) and other media outlets.  He is also a research fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, and the founder of Insure.com, a site for insurance information that has provided original insurance content to the Web’s leading business portals, including Microsoft, Yahoo, America Online, and MarketWatch.  Formerly a contributing editor at U. S. News & World Report, he has spent forty years as an award-winning financial journalist, Internet entrepreneur, and corporate communications executive for a Fortune 500 financial services firm.  He lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Contact:

Twitter

Reviews:

[A] can’t-miss guide to the system. . . . Clear enough for even the most intimidated reader, with a concluding cheat sheet helpfully summing up the book’s suggestions. The authors’ palpable fervor to help readers get back what they’ve paid will energize readers to claim what is rightfully theirs.

-Publishers Weekly

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An indispensable and surprisingly entertaining guide for anyone who is retiring or thinking of retiring with all of the Social Security benefits they’ve earned.

-Jane Pauley

Getting smart about Social Security can put tens of thousands of extra dollars in your pocket. With that in mind, start by reading, Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security.

-Glenn Ruffenach for Wall Street Journal

Choosing when to take Social Security is one of the biggest decisions of your life. By doing it right, you can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your lifetime income and leave more money for your spouse as well. This great book tells you how . . . and it’s funny, too!

-Jane Bryant Quinn, author of Making the Most of your Money NOW

For my money, the best investment in raising your lifetime Social Security benefits is Kotlikoff, Moeller, and Solman's new book Get What's Yours: the Secrets to Maximizing Your Social Security, since successfully executing some of these strategies requires you to understand the rules, even if the Social Security representative you’re dealing with does not.

-Janet Novak, Personal Finance Columnist for Forbes

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I love this book! Seriously! Who could ever guess that reading about Social Security could be this entertaining? And if you think you know enough about the subject, you would be wise to think again. Smartly written by an all-star, financial expert dream team, the engaging, down-to-earth prose makes Get What’s Yours the definitive guide to maximizing what is, for many, the most important retirement asset by far. From determining the best age to claim (hint: it’s not what you’ve been told) to figuring out the intricacies of spousal benefits to avoiding the ‘gotchas’ that can reduce your checks, this must-read guide is truly that. And don’t be surprised if you actually enjoy it!

-Beth Kobliner, author of Get a Financial Life

[Goes] a long way in educating the public and financial advisers about this important lifetime benefit. Get What's Yours is a fun read for advisers with a slightly snarky tone that puts the absurdity of the program's more than 2,800 rules into perspective.

-Mary Beth Franklin, Investment News

There’s a brand new book out, Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security by three wonderful authors, Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, financial journalist Philip Moeller, and business and economics correspondent for PBS NewsHour Paul Solman. This great guide is a must-read.

-Jonathan Pond, financial planner, author and creator of leading public-television financial education programs

Books:

  • GET WHAT'S YOURS: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security, with Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Paul Solman (Simon & Schuster, 2015)

Awards:

Winner of the Gerald Loeb Award

Served as Governor and former President of the Society of American Business and Economic Writers

Speaking Topics:

  • Social Security – how to use it, the future of the system, likely reforms, its role in retirement planning
  • Medicare and older-age healthcare – helping consumers understand how to use Medicare, take better care of themselves, and save money; can also discuss financial condition of the program, how the Affordable Care Act is changing it, and institutions that are being reshaped – doctors, hospitals, insurers, drug companies, etc.
  • Aging – workplaces and older workers; ageism in America, aging in place issues and opportunities to make it easier for older Americans to stay in their own homes as they age (which surveys show they overwhelmingly want to to).
  • Happiness in Older Age – trends, behavioral attributes, what it takes to lead happier lives as we age.

Speaking History: (partial)

  • Numerous appearances, podcasts for TIAA-CREFF