Asking for a friend who is turning 62 next month, her spouse is 87 and receiving SS benefits. She started working late in their marriage after looking after the family, so her personal benefit will be small if she chooses to start collecting it next month. However, her spousal benefit, if claimed next month, will exceed her personal benefit. Her work income now is fairly high ($100,000+), which will boost the last 10 years of her benefits calculation, if she waits to collect. His current health is tenuous.

Question 1a) Her spousal benefit, if not filed for next month, will increase up to her Full Retirement Age (FRA), but not any more after that - even though he is far beyond his FRA, her FRA is what the benefit is based on, correct?

Question 1b) If she files for spousal benefits next month (presumably not her maximum benefit amount -> question 1) the benefit will only increase by ACOL amounts, correct?

Question 1c) If she files for spousal benefits, she will be deemed to have filed for her personal benefits too, which will be locked in for life - except for recalculations with her higher last 10-years earnings and ACOL - correct?

Question 1d) Should he precede her in death, her survivor benefit is or is not affected by her age, since she has already reached age 60?

Thanks!

Hi. If your friend files for spousal benefits at her full retirement age (FRA), her spousal rate would be calculated based on 50% of her husband's primary insurance amount (PIA). Her spouse's age is irrelevant. A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA). However, your friend couldn't file for spousal benefits without also filing for her own benefits at the same time, and she could only be paid essentially the higher of the two benefit rates. If she files for benefits any time before FRA, her benefit rate will be reduced for age, and her benefits will be subject to withholding until she reaches FRA based on Social Security's earnings test (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html).

If your friend files for reduced benefits prior to FRA and if some of her benefits end up being withheld due to the earnings test, her benefit rate would be adjusted once she reaches FRA to remove the percentage reduction applied for any months that her benefits were withheld.

Your friend's own Social Security retirement benefit rate would be based on an average of her highest 35 years of wage-indexed Social Security covered earnings, not 10 years. If she has fewer than 35 years of covered earnings, years with zero earnings will be included in the average. Your friend could still potentially increase her benefit rate as long as she continues to work and earn more than she did in one of her previous 35 highest years.

If your friend's husband dies before she reaches FRA and if she chooses to start drawing survivor benefits prior to FRA, her survivor rate would be reduced for age and her survivor benefits would be subject to withholding if she works and earns too much. Widow's benefits claimed at age 60 are calculated based on 71.5% of the deceased worker's PIA, whereas widow's benefits at claimed at FRA are calculated based on 100% of the deceased worker's PIA. However, if your friend's husband started drawing his benefits prior to his FRA then your friend's widow's rate would be limited to no more than the higher of a) her husband's reduced benefit rate, or b) 82.5% of his PIA.

If your friend hasn't yet filed for her own benefits or spousal benefits at the time of her husband's death, she would have the option of filing for either her own benefits or for survivor benefits while waiting until later to claim the other benefit. It sounds like your friend should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to her so that she can determine the best strategy for maximizing her benefits.

Best, Jerry