Larry, My wife and I have both retired. I will be 67 in November (born before 1/2/1954). She reached 65 in October. Her maximum personal Social Security benefit will be about 56% of my maximum benefit (if each were to be claimed at age 70 respectively). Her personal benefit at her Full Retirement Age (FRA) would be about 43% of my maximum (age 70) benefit. Her personal benefit if applied for in January 2021 would be about 40% of my maximum benefit. We plan to wait until I reach age 70 to apply for my personal Social Security benefit.
I have a 3-part question regarding our situation.
1. Per your book, because I was born before 1/2/54, I am able to apply for a Social Security spousal benefit, and let my benefit grow until age 70 unaffected. Does my wife have to apply for her personal Social Security benefit, or would she be automatically enrolled, concurrent with my application for the spousal benefit?
2. Assuming the answer to Part 1 above is that my wife must apply for her Social Security benefit for me to qualify to collect the spousal benefit, let’s further assume that we apply for those respective benefits to start January 2021. Next, assume that we both live past my 70th birthday (November 2023), and I then apply for my personal Social Security benefit, which would be maxed out. Finally, assume that at some time after that, I pass away and am survived by my wife. Would she be able to collect the full survivor benefit based on what I had been receiving, or would the survivor benefit be lowered because she began collecting her personal benefit before reaching her FRA of 66 and 2 months?
3. Does it make financial sense for us to wait until she reaches FRA to apply for her benefit and I apply for a spousal benefit, or should we apply ASAP? We are not in immediate need of the income. We are both anticipating living well into our 80’s, as we are currently healthy and all 4 of our parents survived into their 80’s (average @ 88).

Hi,

Yes, your wife must file for her Social Security benefits in order for you to be able to claim spousal benefits. And, yes, if you don't claim your own Social Security benefits until you reach age 70 and you subsequently die before your wife, she would receive your full age 70 rate as a survivor. Your wife wouldn't get both your benefit rate and her own rate, though, just the higher of the two. The fact that she started drawing her own benefit early wouldn't cause her survivor rate to be reduced.

Whether or not your wife should claim her benefits early is basically a decision that the two of you will have to make. Assuming that if your wife is working her earnings would allow both of you to be paid benefits if she starts drawing early, doing so would allow you to start drawing an unreduced spousal benefit sooner. But, it would also mean that your wife would receive a reduced benefit amount for as long as the two of you are living.

You and your wife should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze your options so that you can determine the filing strategy that you believe would be most likely to maximize your benefits.

Best, Jerry