I was married to my ex-husband for 14yrs. My ex-husband passed away in 2010. ( age 54) I was thinking about retiring on my husband social security benefits in 2020 ( my age will be 64) and waiting to file for my benefits at age 70. I was wondering will I get his full benefit or will this be a good idea or wait until his full retirement age which would have been at 66 ( year 07/2023). He never file for his benefits.

Thank you in advance.
Annette

Hi Annette,

The date that your ex would have reached full retirement age (FRA) isn't important, bit if you start drawing surviving divorced spouse's benefits prior to your FRA your benefits will be reduced for age. However, if your own Social Security retirement rate will be higher than your survivor rate, it would still almost certainly be advantageous to start drawing your survivor benefits as soon as possible. Since you would eventually be switching to a higher rate on your own record, you would want to maximize the length of time that you draw the lower survivor benefits prior to making the switch. But, the Social Security earnings test could cause some or all of your benefits to be withheld until you reach FRA depending on how much you are earning (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/whileworking.html).

Your optimal strategy would almost certainly be one of the following:
1) File for reduced survivor benefits now or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then switch to your own record at age 70; or,
2) File for reduced retirement benefits now or as soon as your earnings will permit at least some benefits to be paid, then file for unreduced survivor benefits at your full retirement age (FRA).

Normally, you would want to start out drawing the lower benefit first and then switch to the higher record when it reaches it's highest potential rate. Our maximization software could sort all of this out for you and help you determine your optimal strategy.

Best, Jerry