My question concerns filing strategies for a remarried widow. The widow is 60 years old and will get remarried at age 61. Her plan had been to file on her own record at age 62 and switch to her deceased husband's benefits at FRA (his benefit is about triple her benefit). Her new husband is already collecting benefits, and his FRA benefit is more than twice her benefit. Can she collect a spousal at age 62 based on her new husband's benefit, and then switch to the widow benefit at FRA? Thank you.

Hi,

Yes. Assuming that the woman in question has been married for at least a year when she files for her own benefits, she'll be deemed to also be applying for spousal benefits. If 50% of her new husband's primary insurance amount (PIA), which is essentially the same as his full retirement age benefit rate, is more than her own PIA, she'd receive her own reduced retirement benefit plus a reduced excess spousal benefit.

For example, say Millie files for her retirement benefits at age 62. Millie's PIA is $500, but she receives a reduced rate of $358 in return for starting to draw early. Millie's spouse is drawing his benefits and he has a PIA of $1500. Millie would then be deemed to have also filed for spousal benefits and her unreduced excess spousal benefit amount would be calculated by subtracting her PIA from 50% of her husband's PIA, which would be $250 in this example (i.e. $1500/2 - $500). This amount would also then be reduced for age to $166. Millie combined benefit rate would thus be $524, which is the sum of her reduced retirement and excess spousal benefits.

If Millie was a widow who'd remarried after reaching age 60, she could later file for an unreduced widow's benefit on her deceased husband's record at her full retirement age (FRA) assuming that her widow's rate is higher than her retirement and spousal benefits. However, if her deceased husband drew reduced retirement benefits prior to his death then it would likely be advantageous for her to file for the widow's benefits sooner than FRA, since in that event her widow's rate would be limited to an amount lower than her deceased husband's full PIA.

Our maximization software is capable of analyzing cases with multiple options like the one described above, so the widow described in your question would be well advised to use our software to confirm her optimal strategy and determine the exact months that it would be most advantageous to file for each type of benefit.

Best, Jerry