Greetings,

I turned 66 on 6/23/2016 and received my first SS check ($2155) on July 27,2016. My wife turns 62 on 9/11/2016 and she has worked sporadically over the past 45 yrs. She will be entitled to approx. 655 / month of earned benefits if she applies at age 62. (estimated $885 at FRA) She will be deemed to be filing for her spousal benefit as well ($1077 @ FRA)

My questions are these:

1. Could I expect to receive an added spousal benefit if I apply for it after a determination has been reached on her application, which would be submitted now?

2. Assuming that she has been receiving the determined amount of benefit since November 2016, would it make any sense, when she reaches FRA in 2020, to suspend payments and wait until age 70 (2024), before applying again for a redetermination? I understand that my spousal benefit if any, would be suspended for that waiting period.

Thanks for your clarification.

Bob (both our birthdays unfortunately missed the arbitrary deadlines.)

Hi,

The answer to question #1 is no, because your own benefit amount is more than 1/2 of your wife's full retirement age benefit amount. If you hadn't applied on your own record, you could have filed for spousal benefits only when your wife filed, then switched to your own record at age 70 when it would be at it's highest possible rate. You would still have this option if you withdraw your application and refund any benefits you've received. You may want to run the maximization software available on this website in order to determine if that's the best strategy for you and wife.

My answer to question 2 is no, at least based on current life expectancies. Based on the FRA figures cited in your question, if your wife files at age 62 (and you don't withdraw your application as mentioned above), she'll receive about $667 on her own account, plus an excess spousal benefit of about $135 per month, for a total benefit of around $802 per month. If she suspends her benefit at her full retirement age of 66 and resumes it at age 70, her own benefit amount will increase by 32% to about $880 per month (i.e. $667 x 1.32), but this would wipe out her excess spousal benefit. So, she would be giving up around $802 per month for 4 years in order to receive about $78 more per month starting at age 70. At that rate, it would take her more than 40 years to make up the benefits she passed up between ages 66 & 70.

Best, Jerry