I need to know my ex husbands death date to update MY social security information. How do I find this information?
Thank you ,
Jax

Hi Jax. I'm sorry, but I don't know of a definitive way to get that information. Social Security has dates of death in their system for lots of people, but not all of them. If you're potentially eligible for survivor benefits on an ex-husband's account then Social Security can release to you any information in their files that you'd need to be able to apply for benefits, but whether or not you can actually get a Social Security employee to cooperate in doing that is another matter. The Privacy Act bars Social Security employees from releasing personal information in their files to unauthorized individuals, and there's tremendous confusion among employees regarding what information they can and cannot release.

If you can't get the information you need from Social Security, then you may want to try ordering a death certificate from the vital records office of the state in which he died. But, if you don't know where he died that may be a dead end as well.

Best, Jerry