Larry, I will be 67 in July and plan on waiting till 70 for my SS benefits. My wife just turned 67 and has been collecting SS since she turned 62. Am I entitled to half her benefits and if so, is it retroactive for a certain amount of time. Also, will that affect the amount I receive when I turn 70. Thank you

Hi,

Yes, it sounds like you'd be eligible for a spousal benefit equal to 50% of your wife's full retirement age rate (PIA). You could have filed a restricted application for just spousal benefits only when you turned age 66, but you can now only claim benefits for up to 6 months retroactively. If you apply this month, you could claim benefits as far back as November 2017.

You can then switch to your own record at age 70 assuming that your own retirement benefit rate is higher than your spousal rate. And, the fact that you received spousal benefits before then will have no adverse effect on your own retirement benefit rate.

Note that my answer is based only on the limited information in your question, so you may want to use our maximization software in order to make sure that you're choosing the optimal filing strategy.

Best, Jerry