Hi Larry, My question involves both spousal benefits and 'non-covered benefits'. My first wife died in 2007 while employed as a school teacher. I have been receiving survivor benefits from CALSTRS (CA State Teachers' Retirement System) since 2008 and the current monthly payment is $834.40 pre-tax. I remarried in 2012 and my FRA of 66 and 4 months is in May 2022. My plan is to follow the suggestion in your most excellent book and file and suspend / apply for spousal benefits for my wife who turns 66 in September of 2022. According to the SS website, my eligible monthly benefit at FRA will be $2,325. So my thinking is that my spouse would be eligible to receive $1162.50 (1/2 of my PIA) less $208.60 (1/4 of my CALSTRS amount, or $953.90. Is this correct?

Hi. No. Hopefully, you have the revised version of Larry's book, 'Get What's Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security' that incorporates the 2015 Social Security amendments. Based on those amendments, if you apply for your benefits and suspend them, your wife won't be able to collect spousal benefits as long as your benefits are suspended (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/claiming.html).

Also, your CALSTRS survivor benefit won't have any effect on the amount that either you or your spouse can collect from Social Security. It sounds like you and your wife should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze all of your options so that you can determine the best overall strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry