Both my children receive social security benefits from my retirement. They are the only 2 sons that to receive his benefits . My question is This… When one of my sons turns 18 what will happen to his portion of the benefits? Will the funds be redistributed to my son?

Hi. The answer to your question depends on the amounts of your primary insurance amount (PIA) and family maximum benefit (FMB). A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA). Children eligible for child benefits on the account of a living parent can be paid a maximum of 50% of the parent's PIA. However, if more than one child is eligible for benefits then their actual payment amount can be lower than their full rate due to the FMB.

The maximum amount that can cumulatively be paid to beneficiaries receiving auxiliary (e.g. spouse, child) benefits on the account of a living worker is equal to the difference between the worker's PIA and FMB. FMBs can range from as low as 150% of the worker's PIA to as high as roughly 187% of the worker's PIA.

For example, let's say 2 children receive child benefits on the account of a living parent. The parent's PIA in our example is $2000, and the FMB is $3500 (i.e. 175% of the PIA). If a single child was the only auxiliary beneficiary eligible for benefits then the child would be eligible for their full benefit rate of $1000 (i.e. 50% of the parent's PIA). But, if more than one beneficiary is eligible for benefits on the same worker's account, they can't all be paid a full 50% of the worker's PIA because that would exceed the FMB. So, in our example with 2 children eligible for benefits, each child would be due a reduced monthly amount of $750 (i.e (FMB of $3500 minus PIA of $2000) divided by 2).

Therefore, as the above example illustrates, the only way that your youngest son would be eligible for your older son's full benefit amount when the older child is no longer eligible for benefits is if your FMB is only 150% of your PIA. If your FMB is more than 150% of your PIA then your youngest son's benefit rate would increase when his older brother stops getting benefits, but not by the full amount that the older child was receiving.

Best, Jerry