I will be 66 in 4 months. My wife will be 65 in 5 months. We are working on a divorce settlement which is not yet finalized. So at this point we are still married. My wife's SS benefit at FRA will be higher than my benefit. Once we are divorced, can I claim SS and receive a benefit at 100% of her FRA benefit amount? Or am I better off claiming SS before we finalize our divorce?

Hi,

As long as your wife is living you couldn't receive 100% of her benefit rate whether you're divorced or not. Both spousal and divorced spousal benefits top out at 50% of the worker's full retirement age rate (PIA). And, if you are already drawing benefits on your own record you could only qualify for additional spousal/divorced spousal benefits if your wife's/ex-wife's PIA is more than twice as much as your own PIA.

Assuming that you haven't filed for your own retirement benefits you could potentially claim spousal or divorced spousal benefits at age 66 or older while letting your own benefit rate grow until age 70. However, you could only qualify for spousal benefits if your wife is drawing her benefits, and unless your ex-wife is drawing her benefits you couldn't receive divorced spousal benefits until 2 years after your divorce is final.

Bottom line, it sounds like you have a lot of possible options with regard to Social Security. You may want to strongly consider using our maximization software to compare all of your options and determine your best overall strategy.

Best, Jerry