My brother worked a full career as a food salesman, manager of food salesmen, and a few other management positions for large food distribution companies in the US. After raising two boys, he and his wife of 28 years divorced. He was lucky enough to fall in love again and enjoy ten more years with another woman before he passed away from esophageal cancer at just under 65 years of age. My question: He made a pretty good income during his entire career. Somewhere between 80K and 160K per year? Does his second wife have survivor benefits available to her through my brothers, her husbands Social Security? If so , when? What would be her best course of action? Thank you.

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. Yes, both of your brother's wives can potentially collect Social Security survivor benefits from his record. And, even if they both qualify for survivor benefits, it won't have any adverse effect on their respective benefit rates.

Assuming that your brother's second wife doesn't have an eligible child in her care, the earliest that she can qualify for widow's benefits is age 60, or age 50 if she's disabled (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.04/handbook-0401.html). Her best course of action depends on many different factors, so she should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully compare and analyze all of her options so that she can determine her best strategy for maximizing her benefits.

Best, Jerry