My friend lost her husband who was a high income earner, whereas she was a stay at home mother with no education past high school. Unfortunately she wasn't left much for herself due to some bad investment decisions by her husband. She fell in love a few years after her husband passed and remarried in her 50s. She did not know she would lose her deceased husband's social security benefit if she remarried. She is now 60 and she and her new husband have a good relationship, but their assets are rapidly diminishing and she could really use the social security benefit she would have been entitled to if she waited to remarry. Another friend told them to divorce and remarry in a couple years so she could collect her widow benefit. Is this possible? Is it legal?

Hi. Yes, that would be permitted under the Social Security law. Widow(er)s can't become entitled to benefits on a prior spouse's Social Security record if they're remarried and if their current marriage occurred prior to when they reached age 60, but they can potentially qualify for widow(er)'s benefits if their remarriage ends in divorce. And, once a person has established entitlement to widow(er)'s benefits, their benefits wouldn't terminate if they marry again after age 60, or after age 50 if they're collecting disabled widow(er)'s benefits.

That said, I'm not suggesting that anyone should get a divorce for the sole purpose of qualifying for widow(er)'s benefits from the record of a prior spouse. Depending on the factors involved, a divorce could adversely affect a person's ability to collect Social Security benefits on the record of the spouse they divorce, and may have other unanticipated consequences.

Best, Jerry