On June 24, Mary Beth Franklin received the 2026 Investment News Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the wealth planning profession. Franklin accepted the prestigious award during the annual Investment News gala in New York City for her work on the importance of Social Security as a key element of retirement income.

For decades, wealth management professionals had virtually ignored Social Security as a discussion topic with clients, focusing instead on maximizing investment returns and minimizing taxes. While enrolled in the Certified Financial Planning program at the University of Virginia, Franklin realized that the comprehensive financial planning curriculum barely mentioned the topic of Social Security nor the opportunities for individuals and married couples to maximize their lifetime income by carefully choosing how and when to claim benefits. During a decade of near-zero interest rates following the Great Recession of 2007-2009, Franklin emphasized the value of postponing Social Security claiming beyond full retirement age to boost income by an extra 8% per year up to age 70. The difference between claiming reduced Social Security benefits at the earliest age of 62 versus maximum benefits at age 70 results in a 77% increase in monthly Social Security income for life.

After completing the CFP program in 2013, Franklin successfully petitioned the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards to expand its experience requirement to allow personal finance journalists like her who had completed the college-level course work and passed the rigorous exam to use the CFP marks. She received her CFP certification in 2015 and documented her journey from journalist to CFP professional through a series of newspaper columns. Since then, she has spent more than a decade as a CFP Board volunteer working to expand gender and racial diversity among CFP professionals. “For me, one of the highlights of the awards gala was the chance to meet several women who told me that I had inspired them to become a CFP,” Franklin said.

Franklin’s weekly “On Retirement” column in Investment News from 2012 through 2023 launched a vibrant interactive community with readers posing questions about specific client situations and Franklin explaining appropriate and often-complex Social Security claiming strategies. Loyal readership among financial planning professionals led to in-demand public speaking opportunities at national conferences and private client events as well as frequent radio, tv and podcast interviews. Franklin is the host of a one-hour program on public television, Social Security and You with Mary Beth Franklin, and the author of the ebook, Maximizing Social Security Benefits, available on her website.

“As a lifelong journalist, my mission was always simple: To take complicated information and make it understandable and useful,” Franklin said. “When I began writing about Social Security more than 20 years ago, I quickly realized that millions of Americans were facing life-changing decisions amidst confusion, misinformation, and thousands of complex rules. If I have made any contribution to this profession, I hope it has been to help financial advisors, their clients and countless retirees make more informed decisions with confidence. For many Americans, Social Security is the foundation of retirement security.”

Ironically, now that Social Security claiming strategies have become a standard part of retirement income planning, the Social Security program is in danger of not being able to pay full benefits to current and future retirees if Congress does not act before the program’s key retirement and survivor trust fund is depleted in 2032. If Congress does not act before then to raise taxes, cut benefits or take other actions to stabilize the long-term financing of the nation’s crucial retirement system, benefits could be cut by 22% across the board beginning just six years from now.

It is time for Congress to take action to reform the Social Security system. Every Senate candidate in the 2026 midterm elections could see the Social Security trust fund depleted during their six-year term. And every presidential candidate in the 2028 election owes it to the American people to outline their plan to save Social Security. Lawmakers need to keep the promises made to American workers back in 1935 when Social Security was created: that their payroll tax contributions and those of their employers would provide them with the basis of a dignified retirement.