If your looking to gain the most from your Social Security benefits, you might want to consider a 'do-over' as a financial-planning option.

A do-over, in this context, is when someone withdrawals their application for Social Security benefits, by filing form SSA521, and pays back all the Social Security money they've received since first filing for benefits. They then reapply for benefits based on their age at the time of the do-over, which provides a higher monthly benefit from that time forward.

Lawrence Kotlikoff, a professor of economics at Boston University, says if a person doesn't require money from Social Security to meet their basic needs, he or she could apply for Social Security at age 62, invest those funds until age 70, then repay the government and reapply for benefits. He says the individual could keep the investment returns they would have earned above the amount repaid to Social Security. And after a 'do-over,' the amount of their monthly social security checks would jump considerably.

To understand the basics of Social Security benefit payments, Joy Chang, Social Security's regional communications director in Seattle, gives the following example. Someone who is 62 years old, the earliest age possible to receive benefits, might receive $750 monthly, compared with $1,000 a month at their full retirement age of 66 and $1,320 a month at age 70.

In the newsday.com article, Mary Beth Franklin, Kiplinger magazine's senior editor, said typically and individual who begins receiving Social Security benefits at age 62 and takes a do-over at age 70, would be ahead of the game financially if that person, their spouse, or both of them reach age 80.

Following that example, someone collecting a $750 monthly benefit from age 62 to age 70 would receive a total of $72,000. If they invested these benefits over time at a long-term return of 8 percent, their account would have grown to about $101,000.

To complete a do-over, they would repay the $72,000. and still have a profit of about $29,000.

Also, they would have a new monthly Social Security benefit of $1,320. If they live to age 85-their approximate life expectancy-they would receive $237,600 in benefits, compared with $135,000 without the do-over.

Thus, the $29,000 investment profit plus the $102,000 in added benefits they would receive over the hypothetical 15-year period equate to a total do-over gain of $131,000.

A do-over offers other benefits as well. For example, the Social Security money that is to be paid back into the system is only the money received, with no interest attaché, and the payback is with inflation-adjusted dollars. Also, individuals can deduct the repayment on their income taxes paid on benefits received, which ever saves them the most money.

In a June article on the newsday.com website, Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter said that fewer than 20,000 Americans applied for do-overs last year. That number could jump dramatically, though, as the benefits of this financial strategy become more widely known.

Lassiter said do-overs have been available since at least the 1940's, and everything I've read and heard from individuals dealing with the Social Security Administration has indicated the agency's willingness to comply with the law that allows them.

Yet, if Social Security gets swamped with do-over applications, how long will do-over remain on the books? After all, not requiring benefit recipients to pay back with interest is a far bigger boon for taxpayers than for government. And let's face it, the number of people who would benefit from a do-over is far larger today than it was in 1935, when the Social Security Act was instituted, because Americans now live much longer.

The biggest risk to anyone who gets a do-over, o course, is if that person and their spouse die before the total amount of payments made o them surpasses the amount repaid to the government.

Chang, who says the Social Security Administration has no official stance on do-overs other than to honor them, suggests the two most important considerations for anyone thinking about a do-over are their financial status and their life expectancy.

Obviously, someone can't seek a do-over unless they have ample funds in the bank to repay all Social Security payments received prior to that point in time. She calls it a "gamble" as to weather the participant and or their spouse will live long enough for their higher monthly Social Security payments to eclipse the do-over repayment amount required to receive the new higher benefits.

In an article titled "Reapply for Social Security," Kotlikoff favorably compares a do-over with buying a commercial inflation indexed lifetime annuity. Kotlikoff uses an example of a person who had collected $94,556 in benefits, based on annual payments of $13,250. After repaying the $94,556 benefit and completing the do-over paperwork, the recipient's new higher benefit is $20,693 annually.

The difference between the old and new annual benefit is $7,443. To purchase a commercial annuity with an equivalent lifetime benefit according to the article would be about $132,000, or about 40 percent more than the $94,556 cost of the do-over.

In this article, Kotlikoff also encourages anyone taking early Social Security benefits and later filing for a do-over to keep accurate tax records. He says, " We recommend you fill out, but not file, a separate tax return each year that does not include your social security benefits. The difference in taxes on this extra return and the actual return you file represents the extra tax payments you'll be able to recover as a tax credit when you ultimately repay and reapply." Kotlikoff says completing two tax forms each year will make it clear how much income tax can be reclaimed when benefits are repaid.

In conclusion, Social Security do-overs need not be as esoteric as they have been in the past. With proper assistance from tax and financial planning professionals, many people could benefit from such a strategy, especially given our longer life spans now.