Hello Larry et. al. I had purchased your book about four years ago and thanks for the valuable information that you and your colleagues shared, I was able to do a "restrictive" Social Security on my ex wife. I will be turning 70 in mid January. I had also worked for the New York City Transit Dept. in the Railroad sector. Question: (A) Do I start applying for FRB now to be effective mid January? (B) Will I then forfeit my ex's restrictive SSB once I do get my FRB at 70? and lastly, (c). Am I entitled to any railroad retirement benefits from SS. As a side note, I was only employed for 9 years at the NYC subway. Thanks you for all your great Wisdom and updates with SS !
Hi,
My expertise is limited to Social Security benefits, so I can advise you regarding other types of pensions. If your FRB pension is based on work for a governmental agency and if your earnings were exempt from Social Security taxes, then when you start drawing the FRB pension your Social Security divorced spousal benefits will likely be subject to at least a partial offset due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision. The GPO provision can cause a person's Social Security auxiliary (e.g. spousal, divorced spousal) or survivor benefits to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of their government (e.g. federal, state, local) pension that's based on their work and earnings that weren't subject to Social Security taxes (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).
Social Security doesn't pay Railroad Retirement (RR) benefits. If you worked long enough in railroad employment to qualify for a RR pension, you'd need to file for those benefits with the Railroad Retirement Board. However, if you didn't work in the railroad industry long enough to qualify for RR benefits, then Social Security could use your RR earnings to calculate your Social Security retirement benefit rate.
You don't mention whether or not you could qualify for Social Security retirement benefits based on your own earnings history, but if you do qualify and if your own benefit rate would be higher than your divorced spousal rate, you'd want to file for your Social Security retirement benefits effective no later than the month you reach age 70. You stop accruing delayed retirement credits (DRC) once you reach age 70, so your Social Security retirement benefit rate won't grow any higher if you wait past age 70 to claim those benefits.
It sounds like you may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the Social Security options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits. The software can't help you with RR benefits, though.
Best, Jerry
