This course is designed to give the students a background in Social Security for their personal and professional needs. It shows how the program has been expanded from a retirement payment to a worker leaving the workforce due to old age to a massive insurance program that covers spouses and other dependents. Included is an explanation that is prevalent in current non-professional literature that is misleading to the public, and what the students should know to clarify the misstatement for themselves or their clients. Factors that are necessary to determine a Social Security benefit and the formulas for how those factors are determined are discussed. 

It discusses the Full Retirement Age (FRA) with the associated benefit and the reduction formula for earlier-age retirement and the increased benefit due to a Delayed Retirement Credit for retirement later than the FRA.  The procedure for determining spousal benefits is also discussed.  A thorough presentation of Breakeven is given to help the student decide or advise a client when to take advantage of benefits. The probabilities of surviving to the breakeven ages are shown. 

Two relatively unknown topics, the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Pension Offset, are discussed, in addition to the current consensus and projections for the future of the Social Security program touched upon.