I use your retirement software and maximize SSN. My wife and I have both worked and qualified for SS near the max individual levels. As far as I can tell from your software and my financial advisor - we can both draw SS independent of each other whenever we decided to do so. There is no maximum family ceiling in our case. ---- Is this the case? --- Reason for checking is I have a relative who's accountant is tell them there is a family maximum level and that she should start drawing SS now at 62 because waiting won't matter because of this max value. I do not see this anywhere and I am checking to make sure our understanding is correct.

Hi. I answer general Social Security questions submitted to this site, but I don't have access to our software customer's data. I would suggest resubmitting your question using an online contact form that can be found in the help menu so that you can receive a more personalized answer from one of our experts with access to your records.

What I can tell you is that the only types of benefits that can be affected by the family maximum benefit (FMB) are auxiliary (e.g. spousal and child benefits) or survivor benefits, not retirement benefits paid to individuals based on their own accounts. There is no set ceiling on how much that a husband and wife could be paid based on their own Social Security earnings histories,

Best, Jerry