I am 52 and my wife is 51. The best strategy to maximize our social security income seems for my wife to claim on her own service at 62 and I claiming spousal benefits until I am 70 and switch over to claim under mine given that I am the one earning higher salary over time. However, my question is what impact has to social security income that my wife is getting if I were to deceased before I turn 70. Can she still wait until I would have turned 70 to claim under my entitlement, thus receive higher social security income?

Look forward to your reply.

Kalpesh

Hi Kalpesh. If you die prior to applying for benefits, your wife's unreduced widow's rate would be at least 100% of your primary insurance amount (PIA). A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA). If you die after reaching full retirement age (FRA), your wife's unreduced widow's rate would be equal to 100% of the benefit rate that you would have been due if you'd started drawing your benefits in the month of your death. That would be your PIA augmented by the delayed retirement credits (DRC) you'd earned up until the time of your death.

To get 100% of your PIA or 100% of your PIA plus DRCs, your wife would have to wait until her FRA to start drawing her widow's benefit. She could potentially collect her own benefit prior to then, though, and any reduction for age applied to her own benefit rate wouldn't reduce her widow's rate. If your wife starts drawing widow's benefits prior to FRA her benefit rate would be reduced for age.

One important thing I should point out, you won't be able to collect spousal benefits while delaying your own benefits until age 70. Only people born prior to January 2 1954 are allowed to apply for spousal benefits without being required to claim their own benefits at the same time, and even they can only do so if they apply for the spousal benefits at FRA or later. You and your wife may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry