For Young Widows, the Best Social Security Claiming Choice Isn't Always What It Seems

What You Need to Know

Welcome to Connecting the Dots, Marcia Mantell’s column on real-life decisions tied to Social Security claiming and retirement.
Estimates from the SSA do not provide enough information for an informed claiming decision.
It’s typically best for a widow to delay their biggest benefit until it’s maximized. But even that general rule leaves advisors with dots to connect.

Deciding when a young widow should start receiving surviving spouse benefits requires detailed information about both spouses. A financial advisor recently emailed me about a new client, hoping for a quick, clear answer to his related question:

“Should a widow start taking her husband’s benefit, starting immediately, for the rest of her life?”

That’s  a loaded question. Let’s see how to get to an answer without a lot of detail.

What Social Security Provides

When people call Social Security for benefit information, they get that day’s information. In this case, the surviving wife called in April and received the following estimates:

Her surviving spouse benefit: $2,900 per month.
Her own worker benefit: $1,200 per month.

You can see from these amounts why an advisor might think it’s a good decision to claim her surviving spouse benefit now. But there are lots of missing dots.

More Information Is Critical

The advisor needs at least the following information before making a recommendation:

Her birthday. It’s April 3, 1961. She was 63 when she called Social Security. 
Her full retirement age. It’s 67. 
Her survivor FRA. That’s 66 and 10 months.

The advisor also needs details about her deceased husband such as his birthday, Oct. 4, 1962, and when he died, 2015.

He was only 53 when he died. Without his Social Security statement and full earnings record, the advisor doesn’t know how many credits he earned. But since she was given a surviving spouse benefit estimate, it’s safe to assume he was fully insured.

Those bits of information are important because the advisor needs to back into each primary insurance amount before helping her decide when to claim.

Backing Into PIA

Start with her own worker benefit. At age 63, her benefit is about $1,200. If she claimed that benefit today, she’s claiming 48 months before her full retirement age and locking in a 25% reduction. Therefore, her estimated primary insurance amount is about $1,600. And her maximum age 70 benefit would be just under $2,000.