My wife is 65 this August and has been diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer at a late stage. Once she completes her first sections on chemo the doctor with evaluate if this is reducing the amount and she will undergo surgery and more chemo to follow. Survival rate is 20% at 5 years at this stage.
I am a Maxfi member and read your books but looking to make sure I have this right for social security.
If the doctor confirms the stage and damage when he does the surgery we will file for early SS for her since long term outlook is low. I am the higher earner so see no need to wait in her case.
Is this sound reasoning?
Since I am 3 years younger than her and plan to hold on SS till 70 should I take widow benefits should she pass away prior to me turning 70? And if so does the current laws allow for this and still allow me to file for my own higher benefits at 70?
Bad situation all around but would be worse if I screw up the filing with SSA and end up giving up my maximum benefits.

Hi. I'm sorry to hear about your wife's diagnosis. I answer the questions submitted to this forum, but I don't have access to our software customer's data and results. You may want to resubmit your question using an online contact form from the help menu so that your question can be answered by one of our experts with access to your data.

I can confirm that you would be allowed to claim widower benefits in the event of your wife's death without being required to apply for your own benefits at the same time. And, if your widower benefit rate would be lower than your own benefit rate, your best strategy would likely be to claim widower benefits as soon could collect them and then switch to your own higher benefit at age 70. There is a Social Security earnings test that applies until a person reaches full retirement age (FRA), though, so your ability to collect benefits prior to FRA would depend on how much you're earning.

Best, Jerry