Hello Larry - I purchased both books - Get What's Yours for Social Security and the one for Medicare. I have a fairly simple situation but can't seem to pinpoint the answer in the material. Wife reached FRA in May of this year 2019 and husband will reach FRA in November of this year. Wife has little to no earnings record as a stay at home mom and 1/2 of husband's benefit will be much higher. Since she is now FRA should she file now? or should she wait until he reaches FRA in November 2019? I think I read he must also be taking benefits. I am also not sure if they are affected by the grandfathering rules of the old law. Any guidance and/or recommendations would be appreciated! - Justin

Hi Justin,

If the wife in your question has enough work credits to qualify for Social Security retirement benefits and if her own full retirement age (FRA) rate would be well below 50% of her husband's FRA rate, then there would be no advantage for her to wait past the month she reached FRA to claim her retirement benefits. She couldn't receive spousal benefits until her husband starts drawing his own Social Security benefits, but once he does so his wife could only be paid the higher of her own benefit rate or 50% of her husband's rate. Therefore, even though her retirement benefit rate would be 4% higher if she waited until 6 months after FRA to start drawing, it wouldn't raise her total benefit rate once she becomes eligible for spousal benefits.

The only way that it might be advantageous for the wife in your scenario to wait past FRA to claim her retirement benefits (assuming that she qualifies for them) would be if her own retirement rate at age 70 would be more than 50% of her husband's FRA rate. If the wife doesn't qualify for benefits on her own record then she can't draw spousal benefits until her husband starts drawing his benefits, and if she's already FRA or older when her husband claims his benefits then she'd want to claim her spousal benefits effective with the same month that her husband starts his benefits.

If the wife is able to draw benefits on her own record, then the husband could claim just spousal benefits only when he reaches FRA and allow his own retirement rate to grow until age 70. He can do so only because he was born prior to January 2 1954. If the husband does wait until age 70 to start drawing his benefits, both his retirement rate and his wife's potential survivor rate would be 32% higher than they would be if he starts drawing his retirement benefits at FRA. This couple should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully explore and compare their options so that they can determine the filing strategy that would be most advantageous for them.

Best, Jerry