My wife and I have been married for 26 years, I am 59 and she is 54. We have looked at our SS benefits and will both make about $2800 per month if we wait to age 67 to retire.

My question is if I decide to start taking SS at Age 62, which would be about $1900 per month and my wife kept working and waited until age 70 to start taking SS, would she get the maximum benefit? if she died before me, would I then be able to claim her higher amount?,/blockquote>

Hi. Yes, although I'm not sure what you mean by 'the maximum benefit'. If your wife waits until age 70 to start drawing, her Social Security retirement benefit rate would be as high as it could be given her earnings history. Your wife's primary insurance amount (PIA) will be calculated based on an average of her highest 35 years of Social Security covered wage-indexed earnings, and if she waits until age 70 to start drawing her monthly benefit rate will be 24% higher than her PIA (i.e. PIA x 1.24).

And, yes, even if you start drawing at age 62, if your wife starts drawing her benefits at age 70 and if she subsequently dies before you, then you could be paid her full age 70 rate as a survivor. You couldn't be paid both your own benefit rate and your wife's full rate, though, just the higher of the two benefit amounts.

Best, Jerry