Annual funding notice and supplement for the Red Cross Retirement System plan 

Are You Ready For These Social Security Changes In 2025?

From Retallick Financial Group

ARCAN Members Frank Carroll, Mark Hague and Sumner Hutcheson III had double hits in Florida

Ways to improve balance

By Derek Burnett, Contributing Writer at Bottom Line Personal and Reader’s Digest.

By Jack Campbell, former ARCRA Treasurer and CFO for the American Red Cross

Retirees recently received their Annual Funding Notice. Only retirees still enrolled in the Red Cross retirement plan will receive this notice. If they compare this notice with the prior year, they will see few differences. This is because Red Cross management took no significant actions to transfer vested retiree benefit liabilities and related assets to third parties. (de-risking strategy). Consequently, any changes in the value of assets and liabilities were primarily due to fluctuations in interest rates, asset values and benefit payments, i.e. normal pension activity. As a result, the funding target attainment percentage remained the same as the prior year at 80%.

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Social Security is a pillar of financial stability for many retirees. If you’re one of the millions of older Americans collecting Social Security, or if you will be shortly, keeping up with changes to the program is important. 

Thankfully, the SSA commonly announces key changes to the program a few months in advance. Back in October, they announced some changes coming in 2025. Let’s walk you through some of them:

A 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment or (COLA) is coming next year, designed to help seniors on Social Security continue their standard of living despite inflation. This 2.5% increase will bring the average monthly benefit to $1,976, up from $1,927.

Frank Carroll has lived in Indian Shores, Florida for 20 years. It’s 10 miles south of Clearwater Beach on a barrier reef island, Sand Key. He says, “We live on the Gulf Intercoastal Water Way across the street - 225 steps - from the Gulf and we’ve been affected by hurricanes Helene, Milton and Debbie.”  

Helene caused three to five feet of water in the garage level of their 3-level town house. “We lost lots for tools and other stuff and had no access to the island or power for a few days,” said Frank. “In Milton we just lost a downspout.”

Cleanup is still a work in progress  Frank explained there is a lot of garage debris (and a few old Red Cross first aid kits), drywall in the garage and carpet on stairs to the living area will be replaced.

For older adults, a good sense of balance means taking the stairs with ease, walking over uneven ground without worry, and dancing with abandon. As we age, our vestibular (balance) systems naturally decline, and we look to our sense of balance not to perform remarkable feats but to allow us to navigate our daily lives without fear of falling.

Despite the natural diminishment of balance that comes with age, there’s plenty we can do not only to slow the decline but, to a certain extent, reverse it. And it’s worth doing. One in four adults over age 64 will suffer a fall this year, and a fall-related injury or its aftermath kills an American every 19 minutes. You undoubtedly have known an older person who took a fall and was never the same afterward, which is why dedicating a few minutes a day to balance exercises is a good idea.