• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Philosophy
    • Choosing a Financial Planner
    • Legal and Regulatory
    • Team
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Our Services
    • Financial Planning
    • Ongoing Financial Guidance
    • Portfolio Management
  • Financial Planning Basics
    • Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs)
    • Retirement Planning and Cash Flow
    • Social Security
    • Taxes
    • Insurance & Risk Management
    • Investments
    • 401(k)
    • Real Estate
    • College
    • Liquidity
    • Divorce
    • Estate Planning
    • Sensible Updates
  • Resources
    • The Types of People We Help
    • Webinars
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • Financial Planning Guidebook
    • Continuing Care Retirement Communities Guidebook
    • Primers
    • Financial Planning Links
    • Client Links
    • Financial Planning for Older Adults
  • Contact Us
Sensible Financial Planning

Sensible Financial Planning

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Client Links

Call Us Today
781-642-0890

The Importance of Creating a my Social Security Account

by
Rick Fine
MBA, RMA®, CFP® - Principal and Director of Financial Planning

November 14, 2018

For at least a year now, Sensible Financial has been advising its clients to create and then “lock down” their my Social Security Account. This account is located on the Social Security Administration’s web site, www.ssa.gov. Since September 29, 2018, your my Social Security account has been the only way to apply for Social Security and Medicare benefits online.

Whether you are creating this account, or logging into an account you previously created, the web site will require that you set up a dual factor authentication security feature. Dual factor sends a text message to your smart phone, or an email to your email address, with a numerical code that you must use to log into the web site (along with your username and password). With dual factor authentication set up, even if someone steals your username and password, they cannot gain access to your account.

A few months ago, prior to the September 29th effective date, a thief successfully applied for Social Security benefits in the name of one of our clients, and the agency sent monthly checks to a fraudulent address. Our client, who had no intention of enrolling in Social Security until age 70, found out about the fraud when they visited their local Social Security office to enroll in Medicare. The Social Security Administration immediately cut off payments and has opened a criminal investigation. In the meantime, our client is unable to enroll in Medicare. If his employer had not allowed him to remain on his company’s health plan, he would have been temporarily uninsured. In any case, he’s now spending precious time wading through red tape with representatives of the Social Security Administration.

In light of this unfortunate incident, we are reemphasizing the importance of creating and locking down your my Social Security account, even if you are many years away from applying for Social Security or Medicare benefits. If someone else creates an account in your name and then locks you out, you could spend a great deal of time untying bureaucratic knots at the Social Security Administration.

If you haven’t already done so, go to www.ssa.gov and navigate part-way down the home page to my Social Security (see screenshot below, lower left corner). To create an account, you must answer several multiple-choice questions so that the SSA can properly authenticate you. You may be asked, for example, which one of the following four addresses you lived at in the past 20 years; or which of the following lenders you used for your current mortgage. If you answer even one of these questions incorrectly, the web site will deny your request to create an account, and you will have to wait 24 hours before you can try again (presumably with a different set of questions). Be patient and try again. If you are denied more than twice, you may need to call the SSA at 1-800-772-1213 and seek their guidance on how to resolve the issue.

Also, if you have frozen your credit reports at the three major credit reporting agencies (www.equifax.com, www.experian.com, and www.transunion.com), you must unfreeze them temporarily before creating your my Social Security account. The SSA uses your historical financial data from these agencies to compose those multiple-choice security questions. Once you successfully set up your my Social Security account, you can reinstate the freezes. Please refer to Senior Financial Advisor Frank Napolitano’s article, “Freezing Your Credit”, for information on freezing and unfreezing (thawing) your credit reports.

More articles by Rick Fine Filed Under: Financial Planning Basics Tagged With: Social Security

Footer

Services

  • Financial Planning
  • Financial Guidance
  • Portfolio Management

About Us

  • Our Philosophy
  • Team

Resources

  • Blog
    • The Types of People We Help
  • Financial Planning Guidebook
Sign up for our Newsletter

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Locations

Massachusetts

203 Crescent Street, Suite 404

Waltham, MA 02453

Phone: (781) 642-0890
Fax: (781) 810-4830

 

California

600 B Street, Suite 300

San Diego, CA 92101

Phone: (619) 573-4131​

Disclaimer

This content reflects the opinions of Sensible Financial®. We may change it at any time without notice. We provide this content for informational purposes only. Although we endeavor to keep the information up-to-date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability for a particular purpose or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. We do not intend the information contained in this website as investment advice and we do not recommend that you buy or sell any security. We do not guarantee that our statements, opinions or forecasts will prove to be correct. Past performance does not guarantee future results. You cannot invest directly in any index. If you attempt to mimic the performance of an index, you will incur fees and expenses which will reduce returns. All investing involves risk. You can lose any money you invest. There is no guarantee that any investment plan or strategy will succeed.

More important additional information and full disclaimer.

Copyright © 2025 Sensible Financial · All Rights Are Reserved
Legal Disclosure