Valuable Social Security claiming strategy

Mary Beth Franklin [00:00:03] I’m Mary Beth Franklin with the latest on Social Security.

You know, I love talking about how to maximize your lifetime benefits. Well, here’s the date to remember. January 1st, 1954 If you were born on or before that date and you’re either currently married or you’re divorced after having been married at least 10 years, you may have some very valuable claiming options. If you’re currently married and at least one spouse is born on or before January 1st, 1954, here’s what you can do if one spouse claims their Social Security benefit and the other spouse who was born on or before that magic date can say to Social Security – don’t pay me my Social Security benefit. Let it keep growing by eight percent a year up until age 70, when I’ll switch to that big benefit. But in the meantime, pay me as a spouse.

It’s known as filing a restricted claim for spousal benefits. That means give me half of my wife’s or half of my husband’s full retirement age benefit.

Now, for married couples, one spouse actually has to claim a Social Security benefit to trigger a spousal benefit for the other. Not so for eligible divorced spouses, if you are married at least 10 years, divorced and currently single and you were born on or before January 1st, 1954, you may be able to claim spousal benefits on your ex earnings record. And if you have been divorced at least two years, you can claim when your earnings records, even if he or she has not yet claimed benefits. Married couples can’t do that.

Now, finally, for everybody else, there’s another claiming strategy.

If you are a surviving spouse or surviving ex-spouse and you’re also entitled to your own retirement benefit, survivor benefits and retirement benefits are two different pots of money. If you are entitled to both, you may be able to claim one type of benefit first and switch to the other benefit later. You can do it in either order, and it doesn’t matter when you’re born. So make sure you know this important rule.

Survivor benefits and retirement benefits – two different pots of money, and if you’re going to claim as a divorced spouse, remember there has to be at least a decade between. I do, and I don’t. You must have been married at least 10 years to be eligible as an ex-spouse to claim spousal benefits, and you have to be single. But if your ex dies first and you waited till at least age 60 or later to marry, guess what? You can collect survivor benefits even if you’re married to someone else.

I think that’s called the ultimate revenge.

See also: Divorce complicates Social Security claiming options